Between Three Rogues
by Erico
Summary: There were Valuans, Black Pirates, and Blue Rogues, and that was enough for Vyse and Aika to wrap their heads around. Then a girl crashed into their lives, and the world became a whole lot bigger. And somewhere during a globe-spanning epic adventure that changed everything, a man, his best friend, and the girl that went sailing off the map with them figured themselves out.
1. She's Not That Pretty

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric "Erico" Lawson

**Chapter One: She's Not That Pretty**

There are constants in the world of Arcadia. Constants such as, never sail into a storm or else you might find the Arcwhale, Rhaknam. Constants like, the Valuan Empire was made up of a bunch of asshats who believed they could take whatever they wanted. Constants such as the six Moons of Arcadia, who occasionally gouged out Moonstones that rained down onto the floating islands, or dove down through the clouds into the Lower and Deep Skies.

Aika, a young but aspiring Blue Rogue, had another constant she lived by. She could always count on Vyse, son of Dyne, to be there for her. He'd been there seven years ago on a burning Valuan ship to save her from a dagger thrown at her heart. That act of self-sacrifice had given Vyse his now characteristic scar and cemented her bond with the young man as being something more than simple friendship.

Not that she had ever admitted it to him. She still had her standards, and swooning over Vyse? _Please._

"Aika, behind you!" Vyse shouted out. He was stuck in a duel with another Valuan trooper, and he still managed to stay aware enough of his surroundings to call out a warning. The pig-tailed redhead whirled about and brought her boomerang up just in time to block a downwards slash from another Valuan who had thought to sneak in an attack while she was distracted.

"Nice try." Aika smirked, and snapped her foot up and out, gouging the miserable Valuan in the soft spot of his gut that his armor didn't cover completely. The fellow let out an _urp_ and stumbled backwards, hunched over with his knife dropped on the deck without a care. Aika let out a yell and snapped her boomerang up into the side of his helmet, blunt side leading, and bashed him to the side where he lay in a crumpled heap. "Thanks for the heads up, Vyse!"

Vyses' own foe was dispatched far more quickly, as the Blue Rogue's dual cutlass dueling style allowed him to deflect, disarm, and then gut-slash his own foe in record time. Aika didn't spare a moments' worth of squeamishness. The Valuans did far worse.

"Come on." Vyse said, slashing his blade in a wide arc away from Aika to clear the edge of blood. When he grinned at her, it sent a surge of electricity through her body she refused to give a name to. "We've still got an admiral to take down."

* * *

Aika stared down at the strange girl in the silver headdress and gown, and wondered just who the blonde was. Where she'd come from. Vyse was in the room also, but his mind was elsewhere.

"That Admiral was a right jackass." Vyse growled, using a word that he would have never dared to utter in his father's company, much less his mother's. Aika looked up at him storming around by the door in a tight circle, wondering whether or not to call him on it. It wasn't like he was wrong. Alfonso, as the cowardly fop had identified himself, had hurled his own vice captain off the end of the ship to his death just so he'd have a scapegoat to blame on his own incompetence.

Really, though. Where the hell had the Valuan ship's sentries been? Any half-competent crew could have seen the Blue Rogues coming, even with Captain Dyne's penchant for drifting behind the clouds to hide their approach from far off. Had they been that distracted? No, it had to be Alfonso.

"I'm pretty sure that it'll be a while before you see him in command of another ship." Aika said, trying to calm him down. "If all the Valuans were as incompetent as _he_ was, we wouldn't have to work as hard at keeping ahead of them."

Vyse finally stopped pacing, breathed out hard, and let his usual smirk return as he looked over at her. "Yeah. And the Nasrians would have kicked their asses two decades ago."

Aika waggled her eyebrows and stifled a giggle. Her best friend in the world rolled his shoulders and walked over, standing opposite of her at the girl's bedside. His impish grin faded a little as he looked down at her, and tenderness filled his eyes.

It made Aika's stomach lurch a little, watching him watch her. "I wonder who she is." Vyse mused, and his hand went to trace an edge of the veiled headdress she wore. "I've never seen clothes like hers before."

"Yeah?" Aika said, muting herself after she heard the bite in the word. If Vyse noticed, he didn't seem to care. "I mean, she's probably Nasrian."

"Oh? You've seen Nasrian women before?"

"Geez, Vyse, she's a _girl_." Aika ground out, reaching across the bed and punching him in the shoulder. _Hard_. He stumbled back and rubbed at what would likely be a light bruise. "But I thought I'd heard one of the traders mention something about how the women of Nasrad liked to go around in veils one of the times they stopped in to port."

"Okay, okay. It's just, you're always telling these crazy stories about the other lands in Mid-Ocean, you know?" Vyse protested. "Hard to tell what you're making up and what's real."

"Hey!" Aika fumed to hide her blush of embarrassment. "I can't help what I hear. It's not like I've ever been there myself."

"Yeah." And then Vyse got that determined look on his face, and Aika bit her lip. Of course she'd triggered _that_ particular driving force of his...the desire to see everything. "But some day, I will. Some day, I'll sail out and go everywhere."

Aika sighed and reached over, this time nudging him in the other shoulder gently with just a few fingers. "And you know I'll be right there with you, don't you?"

Vyse smiled and nodded. "Uh-huh. Of course you will. Why would I go anywhere without my best friend?"

Aika smiled back. "Yeah. Blue Rogues and best friends forever, right?"

"Right!"

And then the blond girl lying in the bed between them groaned and started to wake up.

* * *

Her name was Fina...and that was about all that anybody could get out of her. She flatly refused on telling anyone about where she came from, or why the Valuans were so interested in her. Even her gratitude at being rescued by Captain Dyne and his crew (And Aika and Vyse especially) didn't provide any leverage in that regard. Still, she was a nice enough girl and they made a habit of being welcoming to strangers on Pirate Isle. Especially strangers who had a beef with the tyrannical Valuan Empire.

What Aika didn't get was why Vyse's mother was _doting_ on the girl. Inviting her to dinner? Sure. It was a great place to pump her for more information she'd been less willing to share during Dyne's version of an interrogation. But the girl was so _hopeless._ It was like she'd never seen a roasted animal before, or fresh fruit, or vegetables. She'd been wide-eyed through all of dinner, constantly bubbling over with questions about _'This is so good! How did you make it?', _or _ 'Oh, that's so tart! What flavoring is this?' _

Ungh, and she was so damn _polite_. The entire time they were eating, she dabbed at her mouth with her napkin with smooth and controlled movements that caused even Vyse, a famously messy eater, to slow down and try to emulate her. All the while, Aika picked at her own food, finding she had less and less of an appetite.

"Oh, you are such a delight, Miss Fina!" Vyse's mother laughed. "And so pretty as well, don't you think so, Vyse?"

_She's not that pretty_, Aika wanted to snarl. Instead she jammed her fork into the piece of meat she'd just carved off of the slab on her plate and shoved it into her mouth. Across the table, Fina blushed a little and hid her face behind a hand, while Vyse went red from his brow to his collar and squeaked out his reply. "Mom!"

He _squeaked._ Aika couldn't remember the last time Vyse had ever been anything but in control or ambitious with a side of youthful bravado. He hadn't even squeaked when she caught him peeking into her bedroom while she was brushing out her hair! Ugh, she wanted to reach across the table and slap the stupid out of him. _Relax_, she tried to tell herself. Vyse's mom was just that warm and welcoming to everyone. She was just being nice to Fina, and doing what all parents did; try to embarrass the hell out of their kids.

"Mother, stop giving them such a hard time." Dyne sighed, although his smile showed how he really felt about it. "Vyse, why don't you take the girls out for a walk? I need to talk to your mother about where Fina's going to be sleeping tonight."

Aika's grip on her fork was so tight that she felt it start to bend a little, and she put it down before putting on her brightest smile. "Yeah, that sounds great, captain! Great dinner, Missus D!" She whirled around the table and hoisted Vyse up by his arm, pulling him close to her side before looking over to Fina. "There's a great view of the sunset on lookout point! Come on, Fina, we'll show you around!"

"Hey, Aika, take it easy…" Vyse muttered. Moons, he could be so dense. Didn't he _know _why she was so on edge? No. Chances were he was just that clueless. Anything that didn't involve his dream of traveling the world, or putting the hurt on the Valuans, or upholding his reputation as an up and coming Blue Rogue tended to fly right over his head.

Fina seemed just as obtuse to the friction as Vyse had been. She'd set her napkin on her plate, stood, and bowed formally to both the captain and his wife, that strange lacy veil around her hair bobbing by her shoulders. "Thank you for the meal. It was very delicious." Then she turned to Aika and Vyse, and her smile only deepened. "I would love to see more of your home, if you are willing to guide me."

Aika felt something twist in her stomach as Fina's attention turned to them. Not a thread or a hair out of place, not a blemish or a wobble in her stance.

"It's no problem." Vyse quickly answered, tugging his arm free of Aika with a small grunt of effort. He shot her a small glower that sunk the redhead's spirits further, then turned the smile back on and went to the door to open it for the girls. "Blue Rogues always help out those in need. Right, Aika?"

Aika paused for a moment as Fina gracefully walked ahead of her for the opened doorway, and pulled back into her head enough to seriously think on the question.

She remembered how they'd found Fina; unconscious, slung over the shoulder of a Valuan guard, being carted off by that cowardly pig Alfonso like some trophy of conquest. Whatever that jackass had planned for her…

Nobody deserved that.

Aika suppressed her shiver, and allowed a glimmer of guilt to slice through her rising jealousy. "You bet we do." She conceded, following after them. She caught Fina's gaze turning on her briefly as they emerged outside and walked shoulder to shoulder, and the slight nod of thanks made Aika's own smile far less forced than it had been before.

She was just a strange girl from who knew where. Just another charity case for Mr. Blue Rogue incarnate. Just a soft, curvy girl with a guy-killing smile and perfect hair and…

Aika resolved then and there to stay closer to Vyse. As long as Fina was still around.


	2. He's Just That Nice

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Two: He's Just That Nice**

It had been a simple question, really. She hadn't expected it to be such a big deal. _'Are you a princess?'_

Sitting up on lookout point, Vyse had gone on and on about his dream of traveling the world of Arcadia, seeing everything, going everywhere. It was inevitable, really; any excuse and he'd fly off on a tangent about it. Aika loved the stuffing out of her scarred friend, but there were times it even grated on her nerves. At least until his infectious optimism ground into her and made her forgive him. Fina had smiled, but her attention had clearly been elsewhere. Vyse fell into awkward silence, waiting for Fina to say something, but the girl was as tight-lipped as she'd been in Dyne's office. Aika had considered it an icebreaker.

"Um, what?" Fina had jerked her head around, and her veil had bounced around her hair in the evening breeze. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, I mean, your outfit." Aika went on. "I've never seen a dress like it before, but it's plenty fancy. And how you eat, how you walk…"

Fina blushed, quickly shaking her head. "No. No, I'm not a princess. We don't even have a monarchy, it's more of a counc…" And then she'd widened her eyes and shut herself up with a squeak. "Um, so. No. Not a princess."

"Well, you're not like any other girl I've ever met." Aika grumbled.

"It doesn't matter who her people are." Vyse insisted, glancing past Aika's head to smile at Fina. "She was in trouble, and we helped her, and she's here now." The blond gave Vyse a grateful nod, and Aika looked off to the side so she could roll her eyes unnoticed. "Besides, she mentioned that she was on a quest-"

"Mission," Aika muttered, correcting him.

"-Well, mission. Whatever it is has to be important." Vyse amended. "And even if you won't tell us what it is, Fina, we'll help you however we can."

"I'm not sure what you can do, really." Fina explained sadly. "Those...Valuans, as you called them, they shot down my ship and pulled me off of it. It's lost somewhere in the Deep Sky now."

"Well, you've got some time to figure it out." Aika said, changing gears. "We usually get a merchant ship who passes by here about every three or four days. If nothing else, we could help you buy passage to Sailor's Isle. It's kind of the crossroads of the trade lanes."

Fina swallowed and smiled, though it seemed forced. "That is very kind of you." Aika looked a little closer and wondered just how much weight she was carrying. She was smaller, daintier than Aika, didn't look anywhere near as confident as she probably needed to be. She almost reached out to console her.

Almost. Thankfully, something stopped her, an burst of shooting stars that streaked down from the silver moon.

"Woah! That's a big one!" Vyse called out, dialing in his zooming lens for a closer look at the storm. To Aika's surprise, one of them actually managed to hit an island instead of just burying into the Deep Sky; there were few patches of land, in this part of the world.

"Hey, one hit the ground. Isn't that Shrine Island?" Aika pointed out. Vyse quickly zoomed in on it and nodded once with a wide grin.

"Yeah, it is. Oh, wow. We're in luck. You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Treasure hunt?" Aika grinned.

Vyse cackled back. "Treasure hunt!" They flew into their practiced and familiar 'secret' handshake, finishing with their side by side triumphant pose. "I'll borrow my dad's skiff. We can leave tomorrow at first light. Man, I wonder how huge that moonstone's going to be? It sounded like a whopper!"

"The bigger the better, right?" Aika declared. "Imagine how much we should be able to get for it!"

"Absolutely." Vyse looked down to Fina. "And with that much extra money, we should have no trouble at all helping you get started on this mission of yours." And there was that sting in Aika's chest again. "I don't suppose you'd want to come along?"

"Um." Fina hesitated, and Aika quickly jumped in.

"Oh, come on Vyse. Just look at her. Does she look like the kind of girl who goes diving into ruins? Have some class." It was a deflection, one of her better ones, but Vyse looked chastened. Worse, Fina looked at Aika with gratitude in her eyes.

"Um, Miss Aika is right. If there is trouble, it would be better if...if you didn't have to look out for me." Fina apologized to Vyse.

The young Blue Rogue shrugged it off with his usual spark. "Well, I guess it's just you and me then, Aika."

"Just like always." Aika said cheerfully, and met Fina's eyes for a little longer before glancing away towards the horizon, tempering her smile.

_This is one thing you don't get to take away from me, Princess._

* * *

_The Next Morning_

Vyse caught Aika staring at him mid-morning, right as they could see the swirling abyss of the Vortex come into focus beneath the still distant Shrine Island, and cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Something on my face?"

Aika pushed off of the railing of the small skiff that Dyne loaned out to his son when it wasn't being used to catch Sky Sardis. "No, no." It wasn't like she could come out and tell him just how good, how _natural_ he looked at the helm of a ship. The times that the helmsman of his father's ship had let him take the wheel had been paying off handsomely. She rolled her eyes and skipped over to his side, pressing her hands behind her back. "It's just been a while since you and I were able to get out here on our own."

"Yeah, we _have_ been pretty busy, what with all the raids on the Valuans." Vyse admitted. "And that last one? I didn't think we'd ever be able to go up against an admiral."

"If that even counts. As I recall, he wasn't exactly keen on a fight." Aika snorted. "But don't you think you're getting a little too friendly with the new girl?"

It was a question that had to be asked, but she didn't like the frown that Vyse gave her any less. "What do you mean, Aika?"

"I _mean_, we know next to _nothing_ about Fina, and you're falling all over yourself trying to help her. Which is funny, considering that she doesn't _want_ our help enough to be straight with us." Aika crossed her arms over her yellow leather tunic. "I'd swear it's like you've never seen a girl before or something."

"What?" Vyse blinked at her assertion, and took one hand off the wheel so he could turn to get a better look at her. "Aika, Blue Rogues help anyone in need."

"Really? That's your only reason?"

He blinked, then smirked. "Are you jealous?"

"_What?_ Me? Jealous? Of **her**?" She punched him in the arm again to hide her blush. "I'm not jealous, I'm suspicious. Just because she's pretty, you automatically think I'm jeal…"

"So, you admit she's beautiful."

"Hey! I said _pretty! _Beautiful is another category altogether, you...you…" She puffed her cheeks out and pouted as he slipped into another one of his 'I got you' grins. "I'm just looking out for you, buster. You can't afford to mess up just because some woman gives you the doe eyes."

"Aika, relax." Vyse laughed. "You're getting way too worked up. Don't worry. My head's in the right place."

"I'll believe that when we reach Shrine Island and you show me you haven't been slacking off." She sniffed, and turned her head up and away.

Aika heard the sound of Vyse sliding a piece of wood through the pilot's wheel, and had only a little bit to wonder on it before he leaned in and whispered at her, "Besides, if I really wanted to stare at a girl, all I have to do is move that little handkerchief over the hole in your wall…"

Maybe it was how close he was, maybe it was the purr in his whisper, or maybe Aika was just really good at lying to herself. Whatever the cause, she was red as her hair from her forehead to her toes before she blinked and processed what he'd said.

Then she wheeled about with a screech, ready to deck him flat. Vyse was already backing away and running with a laugh as she gave chase, and she caught sight of the broom handle shoved through the wheel, keeping them on course.

"Vyse, you _utter pervert_, I knew you were lying! Didn't mean to peek, my ass!"

It was a good three minutes before Vyse finally slowed down enough for her to catch up and take the bruises he had coming.

Aika blushed all the more when she heard him utter one last quip as she stormed off to go belowdecks.

_"...worth it…"_

* * *

In battle, Vyse was a completely different man. Had he been training, she might have taken the time to admire his form, the lines of his arm and how he deftly curved his swords around him in an alternating style of offense and defense that favored neither arm entirely. It was what made him so devastating to their foes; no matter which hand they favored, he could overwhelm them.

His crosshand style was slightly less effective against the monsters who had made the ruins on Shrine Island their home, but what moonstone-infused steel couldn't handle, their magic and her own attacks made up for. It was a slog, moving through the ruins and slowly draining the water out of it, but the end result had been worth it. The raw moonstone lying at the bottom of the shrine had been _massive_, and would sell well. Processed, it could power an entire ship on its own for months. Maybe even a year or more.

It was too bad there was an enormous metal automaton with some kind of an _energy cannon_ for an arm standing between them and the prize. Its normal attacks were bad enough, but the beam it fired had knocked Vyse off of his feet, even when he'd been guarding. After that first hit, the tactics changed quickly. Run and slash, and _avoid the targeting rays_ at all costs.

"He's got a lock! He's _got a lock!"_ Aika shrieked, moving in a flat out run around the metal humanoid, panicking as every one of the red beams around its single eye found a spot on her body to shine on.

"Hang on, Aika!" Vyse was there for the save, lunging up into the air and jamming one cutlass into a worn spot of the thing's shoulder armor. The automaton twitched under the strike as sparks flew, and the arm cannon that had been coming up to fire on Aika instead unleashed a punishing beam behind her, leaving heavy scouring along the far wall that burned away the green overgrowth and algae and blackened the stone underneath. "Damn, this thing's tough! We need a better strategy, and fast!" He pulled away from it before it could level him with a backhand, but it still managed to smash him with a smaller beam of light from its single eye. He grunted and fell back, panting a little before Aika threw a healing spell at him. He gave her a grateful nod.

"If we could get the thing to _slow down_, we might be able to do some damage." Aika grumbled. "And right now, you're hurting it more than I am."

"Think you could stun it?" Vyse called out, ducking a wild haymaker swing as the robot kept pursuing him. He'd gotten its attention, it seemed.

"Maybe, if I could catch it right in the face?" Aika twirled her boomerang in a tight circle, building up her energy. "I need to charge up a little first. Buy me some time!"

"I'll do what I can. Don't leave me hanging!" Vyse took off like a shot, burning up his adrenaline and keeping the robot's focus on him. It tailed him with another blast from his arm cannon, and thankfully could only get one off. The shot missed Vyse, but he still ended up popping a Sacri crystal, clearly worn out.

Aika grit her teeth. He was giving it his all, and she could do no less. The leading edge of her boomerang began to flare with red light, her spirit channeled into the Moonstone reservoir along her weapon. "Almost, Vyse! When I signal you, line it up facing me!"

"Got it!" He panted, lurching a bit as another small laser caught him in the back of the leg. Aika almost shouted out for him, but held back. She had to hold on to her attack. Just a little more.

And _there_. Her entire boomerang blazed to life. "Now, Vyse!"

He skidded around to her feet, and the robot turned its head around to track in on him with its red targeting rays. Aika unloaded her charged up Alpha Storm head-on into its face, overwhelming it with heat and blinding light.

It did the trick. The thing recoiled and began to make odd beeping noises, flailing its arms around. Vyse lunged up off of the ground with a roar, jumping into the air and bringing both of his cutlasses to bear. To her immense satisfaction, he managed to jam both of his blades into the thing's eye with a sound like breaking glass...and then the glowing lines along its body went dark. The thing collapsed to the ground with Vyse on top of it, breaking apart into the myriad parts it had been before they stumbled across it.

Aika stood there as Vyse slowly lurched up to his feet, panting for air, then busted out laughing. Vyse looked back at her like she'd lost her mind, which, Aika reflected, she may well have. He didn't demand an answer though, he just kept looking at her and waiting for one.

She finally wiped away some of the grime on her face and looked at him. "Which joke do you want to hear?" Aika teased him.

"I swear, if you make some crack about it falling to pieces over me…"

"You gave him an eyeful." Aika cut in, winking at him. Vyse blinked twice, groaned, and retrieved his swords. Aika went over to the raw chunk of unrefined moonstone lying on the shrine's floor and rocked back and forth on her heels as she waited for Vyse to join her. He stopped beside her, and the two spent some time to admire their hard-won prize.

"Not bad for a morning's work." Vyse finally said. Aika harrumphed a little.

"More like a morning and a good chunk of the afternoon. Now, before we haul this thing up, set sail for home and dig into your mom's picnic basket, there's one last thing we need to do, Vyse."

"Yeah, what's that?" Vyse asked.

Aika stepped back away from him and extended her hand. "Don't leave me hanging." She teased him.

Vyse didn't. Another secret Blue Rogue handshake later, they laughed and got to work pulling the moonstone up. Today had been just what she needed. Just her, her best friend, an entire day of fighting, relaxing, and being the best damn air pirates in all of Arcadia, and no Fina to get in the way of it.

* * *

_Pirate Isle_

_Evening_

Their home had been _burning._

By the time they got back, the Valuan armada had come and gone and left destruction behind them. Their victory the day before had really pissed them off but good, and staring at all the wrecked houses...the_ Albatross_ turned into a pile of burning wood and charred metal inside of the underground hangar…

Every elated feeling of sweet satisfaction had turned to ash and dust in her mouth, and on her hands.

The women and children had been spared, but every member of the _Albatross's _crew, Captain Dyne included, had been arrested and hauled off. And Fina? Fina was gone too.

_Captain Dyne was right. She was more important than she wanted us to know. _

She'd been strong while she'd been beside Vyse at the start, and when they'd raced to help the survivors finish putting out the fires and taking stock of the island. She'd put on a brave face when Vyse swore in front of the families of their captured friends and shipmates that it wouldn't stand, that he would _bring them all back home._ But it had forced up old traumas, and after the worst things had been dealt with, she'd retired to what was left of her family's old and empty home and cried. For the loss of her parents back when she'd been a little girl. For the losses they'd taken now.

Aika couldn't sleep after. There was still too much nervous energy buzzing around her. She made her way over to Vyse's house, to talk with him…

But on the way over, she saw that he wasn't there at all. He was up on the upper docks, loading supplies into the skiff. His shoulders were slumped and he didn't hear her coming, something that would have never happened if he was paying attention. It pricked the alarm bells in the back of her mind.

Around everyone else, Vyse never faltered. He never showed weakness. But here, in the dark, by himself…Aika saw just how badly he had crumbled. Just how difficult it had been for him to hold himself together.

She had cried it out, wiped her tears away, and kept moving. He was refusing to face it, just going through the motions. Aika couldn't let him do that to himself.

"You know, you should be in bed." Aika called up to him in a relaxed voice.

"I'll get there soon enough." Vyse responded, not even looking over his shoulder as she hopped up onto the deck of the skiff. "Once I get all these supplies loaded up."

Aika sized up the work he'd already done. "By the look of it, you've already stowed away most of our provisions. You should stop, get to bed."

"I can't stop." Vyse snarled. "If I do, if I slow down, then my mind…"

"Races." Aika finished his sentence, and that finally snapped him out of his funk. He turned around and gaped at her, and she shrugged. "I couldn't sleep either. I was going to come talk to you. I didn't expect to find you out here wearing yourself out, though I guess I should have expected it."

Vyse swallowed. "We should have been here. We could have…"

"We could have _what_, Vyse? We could have done **what, exactly?**" Aika snapped back harshly. She'd had plenty of time to reflect on it after she'd run out of tears. She wondered if he saw just how red her eyes were, how puffy the skin under them was. She could feel it. "They threw the entire Armada at them. If we'd been here, we would have either ended up dead, or captured. And then who would be left to save anyone?!"

Vyse ground his molars together and looked down and away from her seething stare. "I...I just...What if we fail?"

"We're going to get them back, Vyse." Aika stepped over to him, set a hand on his shoulder. She forced him to look at her. She needed him to see the steel in her eyes. "All of them."

He swallowed thickly. "There are so many things that could go wrong with this plan."

"We had a plan?" Aika countered, laughing softly. "I thought we were making this up as we went along."

"Don't joke about this, Aika. Not now." There was no heat in the rebuke, and she shrugged it off.

"You made a promise, Vyse. A promise to their wives, to their kids. And Blue Rogues keep their promises. Always."

There came a glimmer of his old, familiar, unassailable confidence at that, but it fizzled quickly. "What if I'm not strong enough, Aika?" He whispered. Ashamed.

"That's why you have me." Aika persisted, trading out for tough love with a love tap to his shoulder. "Those are our friends, our people out there. I'm not giving them up. Are you?"

"No." Vyse exhaled, finally accepting mother wit.

"Then get to bed."

"You first."

"I will _drag you_ back and have your mother tear you a new one…"

"Fine, _fine_. I'll go." He set a hand to his head and rolled his eyes. "When did you get so bossy?"

"When did you get so mopey?" They glared at one another, and Vyse finally broke the stalemate with an exhausted grin. "Just...one last thing first."

She set her hands at her waist and gave a long-suffering sigh. "What, Vyse?"

He gestured with a tip of his head to the small grassy knoll beside the walking path. "I'm still too wound up. Want to moongaze with me? One last time, before we sail off tomorrow?"

Aika should have refused, gone back to her empty house with a bed that hadn't been touched since her parents were killed, to her small little room with a small little bed that was part of her small little world.

She held out her hand, and Vyse took it, and led them down the walkway until their feet were on damp grass. They lay side by side, staring up at the silver moon and the sea of stars all around it. If she tried, she could almost feel the back of his gloved hand touching hers.

"You're not doing this to say goodbye, are you?" She asked, when the silence and the smell of extinguished fires made the air too heavy to contemplate in silence any further. "Because I'm not planning on dying in Valua."

"And you thought I was?" He asked her with a chuckle. "Come on, Aika. You know me."

_I do know you_, she wanted to say, but didn't. Only Aika ever saw this side of him. Only Aika knew how to put him back together again. So instead, she inched in closer to his side and leaned her head onto his shoulder.

"Don't you dare go dying on me, Vyse." She repeated the sentiment, letting the gentle inhale and exhale of his breathing finally start to lull her away. "You're the only family I have left."

"I know." His hand came up and brushed along the side of her face, and she shivered. "Sorry. Was aiming for your hair."

"Leave my hair out of this." She complained halfheartedly. It was all an act, but it was an old, familiar dance, and they kept to their conventions. "We're getting them back. All of them." She promised him, and put enough force behind the pledge as if to make it a binding contract with the moons. That they weren't going to be beaten by the Valuans. That they were going to survive.

They had too much to live for, too much left to see. To do. Maybe, Aika told herself, with a little more time, she'd be able to figure out the jumbled mess of butterflies in her chest.

"Even Fina." Vyse said, adding to her vow.

Aika closed her eyes. The jealousy seemed so far away now, so shallow in the wake of the tragedy they'd come home to.

"Even Fina." She repeated.

They should have gotten up, dragged themselves back to their houses, slept in their own beds. Instead, they spent the night out in their battle gear under the stars. It was as appropriate a farewell to home as anything else might have been. And nobody else on the island said a word about it.


	3. Old Folks Are Jerks

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Three: Old Folks Are Jerks**

* * *

Vyse was beginning to think that the moons hated him. They hadn't gone very far beyond Shrine Island when the skies began to cloud over with thick fog. It made sailing a more treacherous proposition, and he'd slowed...And then the keening cry of an Arcwhale had chilled his blood cold. He had tried to get clear of it, but the thing's wake, its very breathing was intense enough that there was no way for their tiny ship to get clear of it. The skiff had been tossed like a kite in a tornado…

And the next time he came to, he and Aika were lying on the foredeck of an old ship with a green and yellow hull, captained and crewed by just one man.

One very old, very cranky, very _violent_ man, with a mechanical arm, an eyepatch, and enough salt and vinegar to open his own pickling cannery. The very first thing he'd done after yelling at them for ruining his hunt for the Arcwhale called Rhaknam was to punch Vyse flat on his back. The second was to put them to work.

His back was already strained after hauling up the first box of supplies to the bridge, and the old man had wasted no time, after listening to a little of his tale, in ordering him to get the second. Vyse wagered he had a little time to recover before he was expected back up there, and went over to where a fuming Aika was mopping belowdecks.

"If he hadn't taken our gear and stowed it, I swear I'd knock him around." Aika grumbled, her anger clear and visibly on display.

"I'm working on it." Vyse tried to soothe her nerves. That was forever Aika. Quick to joy, quick to anger, a firebird in her own right. "He finally asked me who we were after I got that first crate up."

"So is he going to help us?"

Vyse made a face. "I don't think so. But he's not going to maroon us, either. He said he's headed for Sailor's Island to resupply before heading out. We're good for that far, at least. And I did get him to promise that he'd return our stuff before he left us."

"Well, he'd better! The old jerk." Aika snorted. "So what's his deal, anyways? Because I've been down here a while, and even though this is an old ship, he's got some serious hardware."

"Oh?" That piqued the Blue Rogue's interest.

Aika's pout went away for the thoughtful expression she wore when she got more technically minded. "Yeah. Cannons. They're definitely not top of the line, but from what I could tell, he's maintained them pretty well. And he's got them rigged up so that he can fire them from the bridge, if my guess is right."

"I guess he was serious about hunting Rhaknam." Vyse conceded. "But...how does he reload them?"

"He doesn't. Not from up there, anyways." Aika shrugged. "This is an old fishing ship. Converted. He can sail it by himself, but he'd need a crew to fight effectively."

"Maybe that's our way into his good graces." Vyse mused aloud. "We'll play it safe for now, but...we're going to need help if we're going to get into Valua and save our family and friends."

"You think that he'd help us? Willingly?" Aika stared at him as if he'd grown a second head.

Vyse exhaled. "I don't know. Maybe. Dad always taught me to look for the angles. The solution nobody expects. There's a way to get him on board, Aika, there has to be. I just haven't figured it out yet."

"Well, when you do, Vyse, let me know." Aika got back to swabbing the decks at an angrier pace. "In the meantime, it's back to the salt mines for us. We wouldn't want His Wrinkliness getting angry enough to throw us overboard."

Vyse chuckled uneasily and headed for the second crate. He'd almost said that he didn't think the old man would actually go through with that threat, but stopped himself short.

The fact was, he didn't know enough about the old guy to promise anything.

* * *

_Sailor's Island_

As it turned out, his name was Drachma, and the gruff sailor knew quite a bit. Vyse kept managing the chores Drachma gave him to do, and then suddenly the old man gave him a turn at the helm. Vyse did his best to impress their grumpy rescuer, and while Drachma didn't laugh or crack a smile, his scowl went down by a few degrees. It was a start, at least. And it promised to be an ending as well, especially since as soon as they made port, Drachma all but threw their belongings at them, told them to get off the _Little Jack_, and made for the pub to get himself a drink.

"Supplies first." Vyse resolved wearily, and they made their way to replenish their travel rations and to see about upgrading their kit a little more. They had the money after turning in the spoils from their successful expedition on Shrine Island, and Vyse did like how his new underlayer of armor felt. A little extra reassurance against being too badly wounded in combat went a long way to improving his mood. Neither of them was in any great hurry to move to the pub and get something to eat in spite of their grumbling stomachs, because that would mean having to deal with Drachma...or worse, watching him leave with their fractional hopes.

"Come on." Aika finally said, when they'd packed away as much as they could in their bags for a rainy day. "There's a Sailor's Guild office here. At the very least, we could see if anyone's booking passage to Valua anytime soon."

"And I could tell them about the Pirate's Grave." Vyse suggested. "I hear they pay well for Discoveries too."

"The more money the better, right?" Aika grinned at him. It was something to do, and Vyse hated waiting around and doing nothing when there was work to be done. They were just about at the doors when they heard the whispers from a pair of merchants next to the building, something about _'a new Valuan weapon…'_

Vyse went still, turned around, and walked over to them. "Excuse me." He said to them politely. "I'm new in these skies. What was that about Valua, and a secret weapon?"

"Oh, it's no secret." One of the merchants glanced up at him and smiled. "The Valuans recently authorized the sale of a new bow-mounted weapon that fires a harpoon on a rope for later retrieval. It was originally meant for hunting, but it can do some damage in its own right."

"Wow." Vyse raised his eyebrows. "Hunting what? Arcwhales?"

"You could, I suppose." The other merchant shrugged. "But I think they wanted to give merchant ships something that could help them fight back against sky pirates, while not creating a new arms race. After all, what good would a harpoon gun be against a Valuan warship?"

Vyse was enough of a tactician to see the possibility, and he ended up smiling about it. "Not much, I'd think." He lied, thanking the two and stepping back away.

Aika must have caught him smiling, because she nudged his shoulder while he lingered outside the door to the Sailor's Guild, glancing once at the bounty posters, including a new one for a Black Pirate who'd been causing some new trouble for the Nasrians.

"I know that look, Vyse. What are you thinking?" She demanded.

Vyse reached for the dial on his goggle and adjusted the focus a bit.

"I've got our angle."

* * *

Vyse could have played it straight with the old man, but after the abuse that Drachma had been giving them all day, a little payback was way overdue. After all, he was a Blue Rogue, not a saint. Aika, ever willing to hop into a scheme with him, had been just as playful, dancing around the topic and making snarky side comments until finally, Drachma had slammed down his tankard, swore loudly enough to make the conversation in the pub come to a standstill, and glare at the two of them with a gimlet eye.

"The point, boy. Get to it." Drachma finally snapped.

"You're trying to hunt down Rhaknam. I know where you can get a weapon that will give your ship the edge in hunting down Arcwhales." Vyse folded his arms.

"For a price." Drachma droned. Vyse smirked and nodded.

"You're not shoving us off, Drachma. You're taking us with you."

Drachma blinked, then put a hand to his forehead. "This weapon's in Valua, isn't it." All Vyse had to do was laugh after that.

Behind the bar, a middle-aged redhead with rubenesque curves laughed into her hand. "Face it, Drachma. I think the kids have your number."

"You stay out of this, Polly." Drachma growled, though without any real heat. He picked up the rest of his drink and downed it in a few swallows. "Fine, boy. Let's shove off, then. The Valuans have been tightening security, so we'll need to see about gettin' a passport first."

"Not so fast." Vyse held up a hand, stopping Drachma just as he was about to hop off of his chair. "Aika and I still haven't eaten. And a good captain wouldn't let his crew starve, would he?"

Polly's laughter was louder than Drachma's suffering groan, but only just.

* * *

_South Danel Strait_

There was bad news, and a solution for it. They needed a passport to enter Valuan airspace. The bad news: It took forever to apply for one, and nobody in the Sailor's Guild wanted to risk arrest to forge them one. The solution? A Nasrian merchant who was headed home was more than happy to give them his own.

The catch, however, was sizable. Baltor the Black-Bearded had been attacking traffic in the South Danel Strait, and the _Little Jack_ would have to provide escort. With luck, Baltor wouldn't catch sight of their ships, and they could pass through unmolested.

Vyse didn't have that kind of luck, at least lately.

The door to the bridge swung open, and Aika stuck her head in, her face grim. "I've got a positive identification, Captain Drachma. It's the _Blackbeard_."

"Air pirates." Drachma growled angrily.

"Black Pirates." Vyse corrected the old man, his hands tight on the wheel. "They're different from the Blue Rogues. Black Pirates attack anyone, but they especially like going after helpless targets."

Drachma breathed in and out a few times, and Vyse hesitated. He knew what he _wanted_ to do, and after spending a while handling the _Little Jack_ as its Helmsman, he knew _what_ they could do. But it was still Drachma's ship.

"Orders, captain?"

"Bring us about to intercept." Drachma finally ordered. He shook his head. "This could go down poorly. How many guns did they have, girl?"

"At least thirty." Aika said, already running the numbers. "And you only have six."

"Aye." Drachma droned.

Vyse considered the fight. On the surface, the _Little Jack_ was sorely outclassed. They were on a converted fishing vessel, for crying out loud. But then, he pushed down the voice of doubt. He thought of his father, and the rest of the _Albatross_ crew, somewhere in Valua, either rotting in jail or waiting for execution.

He thought of Fina, a girl that the Valuans had been willing to use their entire Mid-Ocean Armada to capture.

And he remembered who he was, and the Code of the Blue Rogues.

"They may be bigger, and have more guns, but we've got advantages too." Vyse announced confidently. "This ship is lighter, faster, and more maneuverable." He looked to Drachma, all grins. _If you want to inspire confidence, display it._ "You took a fishing vessel and turned it into a ship of war to hunt down a legendary Arcwhale. Baltor's expecting an easy fight, but I've seen the armor plating beneath the outer wooden hull, the extra structural reinforcements you've put in. And Aika told me about your engine; it's rated for a vessel twice the size of this one. If we fight smart, we can win this, Cap'n Drachma."

He waited for the old man to balk, or to take command himself and order them to fight his way. Instead, Drachma's single eye met both of his, and the crusty monster hunting fisherman...smirked.

"Ye may be right. You two know how to handle yourselves, at least. Fine. If we're taking on a pirate, we may as well be led by one."

"Blue Rogue!" Aika snapped. Drachma waved a hand, clearly uninterested in the debate.

"Vyse. Take the helm, lad. I'll be belowdecks, managing the cannons. Your lass here...well. You figure out what to do with her."

"Hey!"

Vyse nodded. "Aye-aye, captain."

Drachma sized up the two one more time, coming to a moment of peace. "And lad?"

"Yes, captain?"

"You force us to abandon ship, and I'll make sure you're the first one to be thrown to the abyss." Drachma's smile was less pleasant after that, and he turned for the stairs, heading down below.

Vyse fought off his shiver, and lined up the _Little Jack_'s prow with the _Blackbeard_, still a small dot in the distance, but one fast growing in size and definition. "Aika. You mind being our runner?"

"Put out the fires as they happen, act as your spotter?" Aika mused. "Sure. You know how crazy this is, don't you?"

"Crazier than sneaking into Valua to rescue everyone?" Vyse countered, raising an eyebrow. Aika laughed at his bravado and headed out for the deck.

"Right. We're Blue Rogues. We never do things the easy way."

Vyse nodded to himself, gripped the wheel even harder, and let the call of battle flow through him.

_Blue Rogues never back down from a greater danger._

* * *

Like most ships, the cannons of the _Blackbeard_ were meant to be fired as broadsides. So were the _Little Jack's_ cannons, but Vyse knew better than to get into a slugging match with the larger and more formidable ship.

He was never so glad for how well maintained Drachma kept the old girl as when the pirate ship, sensing that he meant to close the gap, began to wheel around to fire a broadside.

"Hang on to something!" Vyse shouted into the communication tubes, warning the old man and Aika before he toggled a lever and fed additional power from the moonstone engine to the atmospheric condensors. The small ship gained additional buoyancy, and rose up, keeping nose-first towards the larger ship. He caught sight of the puffs of smoke from the enemy cannons, and felt intense relief as every warshot screamed harmlessly beneath the keel.

_"Cannons loaded, boy." _Drachma's surly voice shot up from the gundeck. _"Don't be bouncin' me ship all over, the girl's tough, but she's not as young as she used to be!"_

Aika came running back onto the bridge. "Hey Vyse, I've got an idea. Lemme talk to the captain quick!" Vyse spared her only a glance before nodding tightly, turning his attention ahead. The _Blackbeard_ was beginning to turn around, likely to bring its other broadside full of cannons to bear. Aika darted past him and went to the brass communication tubes. "Captain, are your cannons rated for magical augments?"

_"No, it's not." _Aika scowled, and kicked at the floor.

"So much for my idea."

"Maybe not." Vyse said, his mind spinning fast for ideas. "Captain, do you have any cannonballs with a moonstone inlay?"

_"Ah...one, I think. It's old, though."_

Vyse chuckled. "I'm sending Aika down there. And strap those cannons down."

_"Boy, I just __**told you**__…"_

"I know, I know! But I've got an idea, and it involves us getting _right on their stern_." He glanced over to Aika, hoping that she could tell just how serious he was about it.

His oldest friend threw him a salute and then dropped her goggles down over her eyes. "Let me guess. Charge that ball with red magic?"

"You know me so well." Vyse praised her. She was flushed to begin with from the adrenaline of combat, so he wasn't sure, but for a bit as she dashed off, Vyse thought her face had gone a few shades redder.

He put it out of his mind and reached for the altitude lever, throwing it in reverse and diving down _under_ the _Blackbeard's_ firing arc right as it finished its slow turn and leveled the second set of cannons. This time he wasn't quite as lucky, and two cannonballs smashed through the sails and splintered one of the smaller masts. At least, Vyse hoped it was the smaller mast, because the ship didn't immediately start handling poorly.

Its powder spent, the _Blackbeard_ could do little but start to dive and to try and circle the smaller vessel. But Vyse's estimation of Drachma's ship, and the Black pirate vessel, had been dead on. It turned like a drunken grouper. Vyse easily swept beneath it and then turned the _Little Jack_ around, coming up on its hindquarters.

He toggled the communication tube to the gundeck. "Aika? Tell me you're ready down there!"

_"I'm charging it now, Vyse! I have to go slow, or else the thing will explode before we fire it!"_

"Okay, but hurry. Captain Drachma, which side of the ship's cannons are loaded with normal shot already?"

_"We're loading your girl's magic cannonball on the starboard side. Port side's toggled and ready to fire."_

Vyse nodded to himself, already running the numbers. He doubted the Black Pirates would give them a second chance at this tactic. "On my command, fire everything on the port side. Then I'm going to go into a flat skid and wheel us sidewards so we can launch the starboard cannons at the same target area. Get ready!"

The _Blackbeard_ was spinning around, but it was easy enough for Vyse to get on the ship's tail. He cut into their lumbering turn, his goggle zooming in on the starboard cannons. Much further and he'd sail right into their firing arc. Still, he needed the angle. Almost...almost…

"Fire port cannons!" Vyse shouted, and was immediately drowned out by the noise of thunderous explosions. He pushed the ship into full reverse, which lowered the mainsail and threw the smaller maneuvering fins into a backwards wheeling motion. The _Little Jack_ lurched as it fought against its forward momentum, and Vyse kept his eyes on the stern of the menacing pirate ship. He exulted when all three of the smaller cannonballs smashed into the wooden hull, which was relatively unarmored.

Tactics. Pirate ships like theirs kept their cannons along the sides. To save money, Black Pirates left sections like the keel, and the _stern_, unarmored. And today it was costing them.

He spun the wheel hard as they kept on braking, and the _Little Jack_ skidded sideways, bringing its starboard cannons to bear.

"Fire starboard!"

Two normal shots, and a brilliantly glowing star of light, sped off away from the _Little Jack_ and burrowed into the back end of the _Blackbeard_. More damage...and then the lone magical cannonball exploded, destroying the ship's rudder completely and exposing entire decks to open air.

Vyse screamed in triumph as the _Blackbeard_, now burning and broken, turned away from the duel and lowered its standard of a white skull and crossbones on a black background. They were giving up the fight...and going home.

Aika came running up the steps two at a time as Vyse slowly brought the _Little Jack_ away from their duel and turned back for the merchant vessel they were escorting. She whooped like a maniac, soot covering her face and goggles as she tore them off so her brown eyes could shine brilliantly.

"We did it! We did it, Vyse!" She was so excited and caught up in the moment that Vyse couldn't help but join her in their usual celebratory Blue Rogues victory handshake and pose. They'd barely finished it when Captain Drachma came up behind him and cuffed him hard on the back of the head (with his normal hand, thankfully), all scowls.

"Never take your hand off the wheel, boy!" Drachma snapped at him. "And don't be blubbering, either. You got lucky, and they were careless."

Vyse hissed out between his teeth as he rubbed at the bruise. "Fought a lot of pirates yourself, old man?" He demanded, tired of being pushed around.

Drachma's anger dissipated into irritation at that, and he shook his head. "We survived, but the ship's damaged. I've got the wheel, lad." He took up station at the helm and looked over his shoulder to Vyse and Aika, all business once again. "Go see what the damage is, and then get busy repairing it. I've got lumber supplies and iron plating belowdecks."

"Aye...captain." Vyse muttered, taking hold of Aika's hand before the fuming girl could pop off and say something worse to the old man, dragging her out onto the foredeck.

"And boy?" Drachma called out, stopping them at the door. Vyse froze up, but didn't look back. He was too mad to school his face. Drachma's next words took the heat right out of him.

"You did good, boy. But try to do better next time, eh? You've got more lives than your own to worry about now."

The reminder of what was at stake caused Vyse to swallow down his angry retort and nod. Aika didn't bother shutting up.

"Next time, captain?" She teased Drachma. "Not so eager to get rid of us now, are you?"

"You two have your uses." Drachma admitted. It wasn't a full on glowing letter of praise...but Vyse took what he could get, and dragged Aika away with him.

* * *

_Sailor's Island_

_That Evening_

It had been early evening by the time that they'd finally made the guarded border to Nasrad, and true to his word, the merchant had passed them his Valuan passport. Then came the long voyage back out of the South Danel Strait and back to Mid-Ocean...where they could then turn northwest into Valuan airspace. By the time that they made Sailor's Island, it was just past midnight, and none of them were all that perky. Drachma had paid for their rooms after cashing in the bounty for defeating Baltor back at the Sailor's Guild...and paid for it out of his half of the bounty, having unceremoniously shoved the rest of the coinpurse into Vyse's hands for 'sailor's wages.'

Vyse had managed all of about an hour of staring up at the ceiling on the soft bed at the inn before his mind got the better of him. It had started out too quiet, and then the buzzsaw of Drachma's loud snoring next door had made things worse. He'd grimaced and rolled onto his side, looking over to where Aika slept on the room's second bed. Of course she was out like a light. With her hair freed from its upright pigtails, it swirled around her as a sea of red.

She could go an entire day with Vyse just seeing her as his best friend, his closest ally in a fight. He almost never got to see her like this. Peaceful. Looking like an actual girl.

His gut twisted up as he once again realized just what he was dragging her into.

With sleep eluding him, Vyse tossed his blanket back and swung over to the side of his bed, reaching for his boots. He had the second one laced up almost all the way when Aika let out a muffled groan, stirred, and cracked an eye open.

She caught him standing in the light of the silver moon darting down through the window. Confusion led to halfhearted concern, assuaged slightly by the fact he wasn't reaching for his swords. "What's wrong?" He heard her mutter.

"Nothing." Vyse told her quietly. "Just can't sleep. Go back to bed."

"Mmmmph. No." Aika started to push herself up, and Vyse lurched the few steps to the side of her bed and brought a hand down to her forehead. She went still immediately, and cracked both eyes to look up at him in surprise.

"Vyse?" She breathed.

He thought he was smiling, and on impulse, traced his fingers through her hair. She shivered as he did, and frowning at how cold it had gotten, he reached for her blanket and pulled it up further over her, covering her shoulders. "Don't worry about me, Aika. I'll be fine. Just still a little worked up over that battle earlier today."

"Heh." She sighed and rolled her eyes before smiling at him, openly and honestly. Moons, it was amazing how many facets there were to her. She snuggled into the bed a little more and closed her eyes. "You were amazing. Just like...I always knew you could be."

Vyse stroked a thumb over her forehead. "So were you. I couldn't have pulled off the win without you."

"S'because of you." She muttered with another sigh.

"What is?" Vyse whispered. But this time, she didn't answer. "Aika?" When she didn't even respond to her name, Vyse knew she was lost to sleep again.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead lightly, then stepped away and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.

With nothing but time, sleeplessness, and nervous energy on his hands, Vyse wandered the entire stretch of the island before climbing up into the lighthouse. He leaned out of one of the windows, his back to the rotating glass and torchlight behind him, and stared out to the north. There in the north, the darkness of the night sky became blotted out by dark and angry permanent thunderclouds.

Out there, beyond dark skies, was Valua. It was a land he had only ever heard of, a people he'd never encountered beyond the soldiers and warships they sent to enforce their tyrannical control of the skies. It was the home of the Yellow Moon, whose moonstones carried the power of electricity.

It was where his people, where Fina, had been taken. He had vowed to bring them back, and only in audacity did he have a chance of pulling off that victory. But the risks...the risks kept his mind racing.

Would he die on this quest? Was he condemning Aika to death as well? Would the last thing he ever saw be her face, tracked with tears, as he lay with his head on the block and an axe racing for his neck?

A flutter of movement in the night sky, a tiny bit of reflection caught his attention, and he jerked a hand up right before he was smacked in the face with a wind-tattered kite that carried an unusual string...a string with a small glass bottle at the end of it.

"What's this?" He muttered, raising the bottle up to the rotating searchlight behind him. Laid bare, he could see the bottle had a rolled up scrap of paper inside, and he quickly uncorked it and tapped it out.

It was written in barely legible tradespeak, the author was unknown, but the message chilled his blood. Whoever had written it, they pleaded for help from someone called 'Quetya', to save them from the Valuans.

He nearly crumpled the letter in his anger, but thought better of it and tucked it away for safekeeping. Familiar anger bubbled away in him, and it burned away the doubt and weakness he had felt only seconds before.

There were risks, but he had accepted them. And so had Aika. For years, the Valuans had taken, and taken, and swallowed up the skies in their empire. The Blue Rogues, his father, their friends and neighbors, had been born out of the pressure of that oppression. He had almost forgotten some of the most important lessons in the Code of the Blue Rogues.

"Blue Rogues leave nobody behind." Vyse vowed, and glared into the dark stormclouds to the north. "And Blue Rogues fly _free_."

Come tomorrow morning, Captain Drachma and Aika would find Vyse waiting down in the lounge of the inn, drinking coffee and looking refreshed and determined. He would be ready to take on the world.

The Valuans would never see them coming.


	4. What Hope Looked Like

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Four: What Hope Looked Like**

* * *

_Valuan Capital_

_Lower City_

Ships came and went from Valua like clockwork, timed to the turning of the distant edifice of the Grand Fortress. The well-maintained ships bearing opulent and exotic cargoes sailed for the port in the Upper City, or so the stories went. After far too long of a childhood spent rummaging through garbage bins for scraps to calm the gnawing hunger in his belly, Marco had little time for stories. Stories were what parents told their children when the clothes went threadbare, the food went rotten, and their shack either fell apart from a heavy rainstorm or was repossessed. Stories were empty, meaningless, and cruel. They taunted and teased what the poor and destitute of the mighty Valuan Empire would never possess. Down in the Lower City, the port docking fee was far less, and fewer questions were asked. The only ships he ever saw were ones bearing cargo for the black market, or poor sailors with nothing of real value worth taking.

Every part of his outfit was covered in the grime and filth of the Lower City, and his eyes had long ago lost their brightness. Only the unruly mop of red hair on top of his head had any real color, and even then, only when he got caught in the rains. He had never been truly healthy, but stubbornness and ingenuity had kept him from being a walking bag of bones, like the worst wretches down here. Marco knew the patterns of life in the Lower City. He knew when ships came in, he knew where food scraps could be found. It was all hard-won experience, a lifetime's worth of exploration and observation...and so far as he could remember, he was only ten years old.

Following the patterns of the Lower City had brought him to the edge of the docks, in search of errant valuables he could pawn off, or actual food he could steal and run off with. Sometimes he got lucky, other times he went hungry. He was getting better at it, though. It was only surviving, but down here, survival was all that mattered.

He reminded himself of that as he came up empty-handed from his third trash bin, wearing a scowl and doing his best to ignore the eternal ache in his gut. And then he caught sight of an unfamiliar flash of vibrant color approaching the docks. It was a ship quite unlike anything he'd ever seen before. At first glance, it seemed to be just another fishing vessel, gaudily painted up in green and yellow. But then he caught sight of the covered openings along its side; gunports.

This ship was something new.

It pulled into the docks at an empty berth, and the dockmaster's assistant ran out to meet it. A young man in blue and a girl his age in yellow came out onto the deck and prepared a gangplank. They were joined not long after by an older man who could have been their grandfather, and the old fellow spoke to the assistant for a long while. They eventually shook hands, money was passed over, and the ship and the dockmaster's assistant pulled away, heading for the nearby shipyards, leaving the boy and the girl alone on the docks.

They carried weapons and looked seasoned, but Marco didn't get the same sense of immediate danger off of them as he usually did with the black marketeers. He smirked a little as another thought came to mind; that they were _marks. _He knew the game well. Introduce himself, offer to show them around...then grab their cash and dash.

So he went on ahead of them, stopped at an intersection that they would have to pass, and waited.

* * *

Marco would have just tried to steal their money and make a break for it, but the girl had to open her big mouth and start insulting him, and the boy had been unusually canny, keeping him at a distance even while being slightly more polite than she had been. Had the goggle-wearing fellow sensed Marco wanted to pick their pockets? He had been expecting them to be complete rubes, fresh off the boat. Easy pickings for a kid who'd taken on life the hard way. It had all made him so angry and frustrated that he'd run off fuming, swearing revenge on them. He turned a corner, doubled back around, and followed them.

To his confusion, the two didn't pass through the Lower City with scorn or apathy. They didn't steer away from the inconvenient sight of a sick huskra, but petted it and gave it a bit of their own food before walking on. A young girl Marco only knew in passing who still had a parent spoke of her dream of someday eating white bread, instead of the hard black bread that cracked teeth. For her came a small bit of green healing magic that put color in her cheeks, and a walk to the grocer's, where they _bought her_ a loaf of bread, a bit of cheese, and some meat...then sat her down and waited as she ate it, so that nobody else could take it from her. She cried almost the entire time, and they had to coax her not to eat too fast so she wouldn't get sick.

His stomach growled all the harder at that, and Marco almost walked out there to beg for some himself. Only the thought that he had stolen from the grocer's in the past and would be chased away on sight stopped him.

Nobody cared about others down here. You fought for yourself because nobody else would, and if you had to push someone else down to survive, it was what you _did_.

Who were these two? Why did the young man look like he wanted to burn down the castle and all of the Upper City, as he stared across the skyline to the opposite side of the capital, blazing with light? Why did the redhead in yellow who had been so churlish and dismissive before with him pull that girl in close for a hug and whisper words of encouragement before she smiled and ran off?

Nothing they did added up to Marco's understanding of how the world worked. He kept following them, chasing at a distance they couldn't detect as they made their way to the singular inn, a worn and rusting metal building whose corrugated roof, he guessed from observation, likely made it impossible to sleep at night during a heavy downpour. He clambered up a downspout and hunkered down opposite of a window as they made their way inside. It took them a few minutes to finagle with the lady inside, and then they finally made their way upstairs. Marco shimmied around on the rooftop and made a long jump across the gap, landing safely on the walkout balcony by their room and then pressing himself flat against the wall to listen in.

_"...been forever since I could sleep on an actual bed. A real mattress, a pillow…"_

_ "Heh, you still have it better than me, Aika."_

_ "I take it that hammock down in the _Little Jack's_ engine room isn't all that comfortable?"_

_ "Hardly." _The young man grumbled in reply. Marco kept silent, soaking it all in. So. Her name was Aika...and he was Vyse. And then a short while later, the old man who'd come with them came storming in, quickly passing on more information that set Marco's heart racing.

They'd come here looking for...their family? Their friends? Who were going to be _executed_ in the Coliseum tomorrow morning?! Marco almost gasped. He'd heard enough rumors to know that the Armada had captured an entire crew's worth of Air Pirates not long ago. If these people were here for them, that meant…

It meant a reward. It meant money. It meant, for Marco, a chance at security.

The scarred young man declared they would sneak into the Coliseum early tomorrow morning, and break them out. Marco shook his head. It was foolhardy. Not impossible, if you knew your way around, but...Well. They wouldn't get the chance.

He turned to leave, and promptly slipped on a puddle hidden in the shadows. It caused him to tip over and he caught himself on the railing, but it made enough noise that the conversation inside came to a grinding halt.

Marco swore under his breath and took off like a shot along the rooftops just as they burst outside and saw him. He ran for his life, but it wasn't enough. All his quick moves, his knowledge of the Lower City failed. The young air pirate Vyse was healthier, faster, and stronger than he was. The blue-coated rogue caught up to him right as he had finished shoving the manhole cover over the sewer entrance to the side, and lifted him up by the scruff of his collar effortlessly.

"Put me down, you glass-eyed freak!" Marco howled, flailing around. Vyse gave him a hard shake that left him dizzy, and he slumped in defeat.

"What the...you're that kid from this afternoon! Marco!" Vyse exclaimed, and dropped him on the ground. Hard. Marco groaned and rubbed at his sore bottom as he pulled himself back up to his feet, not missing how Vyse maneuvered around to block his escape into the sewers.

"Vyse! Did you get him?" The shrill voice of the red-headed girl came from above, and then she poked her head over the side of the ledge overhead. Her face dropped. "Oh, great. It's that annoying kid from earlier today!"

"So what's it to you?" Marco snapped, as the old man sedately appeared by Aika's side. "I heard what you were talking about, you _pirates._ I bet the guard would pay well if I told them all about you and your plans!"

The old man didn't mince words, raising his metal arm and pointing his fist down at the boy. Marco's eyes went wide, seeing his death in that pose. "No reason to keep you alive then, brat." The old man harrumphed. The girl beside him seemed horrified, flailing back and protesting.

Marco just ducked his head and chuckled in defeat. "Go ahead. Do it." Only silence answered him, and he looked up to see the old man just _staring_ at him. "Do it!" Marco repeated, angrily. "It's not like anybody's going to miss me, not even the rats! At least if I'm dead, I won't have to dig through the garbage for scraps anymore!"

"No regrets, lad?" Drachma's mouth quirked into a little grin. "Good."

"Cap'n, you can't!" Aika exclaimed. "He's just a kid!"

Marco was surprised again when Vyse stepped around him and then stood between him and the old man protectively.

"Nobody's dying here, not today." Vyse vowed. "You got that, Captain Drachma?"

The old man growled, swore, and spun around in a huff. Vyse turned and looked down to Marco.

All Marco could do was stare back incredulously. "Wuh…"

Vyse looked past him, to the open manhole cover. "Hey, kid. What's down there?"

Marco rubbed at his face. "The old Catacombs. Or they used to be. Now they're just used as the sewers. I live down there."

Vyse got a strange look on his face. "Do the sewers go under the Coliseum?"

"Yeah...why?" Marco blinked.

"If we use them to sneak in tomorrow morning, we can get past the guards." Vyse declared, grinning like a madman. Marco stared at him some more, then busted out laughing.

"You're crazy! You think you can get past all the guards inside the Coliseum and free your friends? You'd be signing your own death warrants! Just give up and go home!"

Vyse took the insult and let it roll off his back without a care. "Can't do that, kid. Blue Rogues never give up. Especially when their friends are counting on them." Vyse set his hands at his waist. "Marco, if you ever went sailing with that attitude, you'd probably give up the first time you went into a squall. That's a poor attitude for a sailor, much less a man, to take."

"Shut up." Marco looked away and sniffled.

Vyse exhaled. "No matter how bad the storm is, kid, there's always a way out of it. I've been in bad situations before and always gotten out, and I'm not giving up now." He turned and looked up the stairs. "Aika, Captain, we're using the Catacombs tomorrow to get under the Coliseum."

Marco stood back up, picked his nose, and flicked away the dusty booger he found. "Aren't you supposed to kill me?" He mumbled. "What if I told on you?"

"You won't." Vyse replied.

"You don't know that for sure."

"Yes, I do." Vyse snorted. "You've given up on life, Marco? Then you'll be at the Coliseum tomorrow. I want you to see something interesting before you die."

"What?" Marco blinked, not sure what the older boy was thinking. Vyse just grinned at him, tossed him a bit of dried meat from his pocket, and climbed up the ladder after his friends.

Marco watched them leave, stared at the jerky in his hand, and found himself unsure of what to do next.

For the first time in his life, he didn't know what to do next. Something unusual had come to Valua.

* * *

He hardly slept at all that night, and earlier than most people did, Marco shoved his feet into his shoes and made his way to the Coliseum. Even here, there was separated seating between the upper and lower classes, a divided partition that kept those from the Lower City with interacting with the elites at all.

He got there early, but the lines were still long. An entire crew of Air Pirates? This was the kind of show that Valua loved to put on, and the people ate it up. He'd been to plenty of these. The Queen's soldiers kept guard, a lucky few were given bread that was usually fought over while the upper crusts laughed about it, and somebody, or a lot of somebodies, ended up dead while the crowd roared. Sometimes they were allowed to fight for a chance at their lives, but today, there would be no fight.

Nobody ever said it in earshot of the guards, but Marco knew that a lot of the crowd in his section of the Coliseum liked to imagine that the people being executed were the ones in charge. They talked about it after, when they spent what little money they did have on cheap alcohol.

The Coliseum orator whipped them all up into a frenzy, screaming about the crimes of the air pirates, and especially of their leader, Captain Dyne of the 'Bloodthirsty Blue Rogues.' There was no way of knowing just how much was truth and how much was fiction made up in the heat of the moment, but it didn't matter to the crowd. It was part of the show, and the show was distraction from everything in their lives that was rotten and wrong.

Only when the orator at last seemed satisfied with the howls and the boos pouring down into the bowl of the arena did he gesture to the guards at the gates underneath the arena's seating. They slowly raised up, and a line of chained men in worn and soiled sailor's clothing were marched out, their hands bound behind their backs. At the forefront was a tall and proud man in black leather trousers and a blue vest that still gleamed under the harsh yellow electric lights with its natural color. He stood erect and unflinching as the people around Marco hurled insults, epithets, and rotten produce down at him. By the color of his hair, Marco at last realized who Dyne was. This was Vyse's father, weathered by hard years, but unflinching in the face of his death.

They were stopped before the wooden platform erected near the center of the arena, where the helmeted executioner waited beside the chopping block with his wicked, long-handled axe. The boos were deafening as Captain Dyne was leg up onto the platform and forced to his knees.

The orator gestured to the crowd for silence as Dyne stared at the grooved wooden block where his neck would soon lay. It took some time before the noise dwindled enough for anything to be heard.

_**"Does the condemned have anything to say in his final moments?" **_The orator bellowed, using the echo of the arena to be heard by all. _**"Beg for forgiveness and you shall receive the mercy of Valua, and have your life spared and spent in servitude working in the moonstone processing plants."**_

Marco shook his head. The processing plants were as good as a death sentence anyways; they had nothing in the way of safety, and the harsh chemicals the Valuans used were poisonous. There were plenty of people in the Lower City who had once worked in those factories. None of them had come out of it without scarred lungs or blinded eyes or terrible burns...and the unluckiest ones were the workers whose minds had been taken from them. "Moonstone madness", they called it.

This was it then. He chuffed once and smiled grimly. For all of his talk about saving his friends, his father, Vyse was nowhere to be seen. Marco looked to the large sewer grate at the center of the arena, set there so blood could be washed away. The older boy had been all talk after all.

Marco blinked, and looked again.

The sewer grate had moved...just a little bit. If he hadn't been staring right at it, he would have missed it completely. Marco opened his mouth and a strangled noise got caught in his throat.

Unaware of the events playing out behind him, Captain Dyne lifted his head up from the block and glowered at the audience. "BLUE ROGUES FLY **FREE!"** He yelled in defiance.

As though it were a signal, a figure in gleaming blue came running out into the arena, swords drawn. Before anyone could react, he had gutted the guard over Captain Dyne and kicked him away…

The audience, already quiet, fell into stunned silence…

And the world _snapped_ back into movement as the rest of the captive Blue Rogues quickly kicked out at the rest of the guards, then ran back towards a screaming girl with red hair by the sewer grate, urging them forward. An old man lurched up out of the sewers at last, and as each of the air pirates reached the girl, her bladed boomerang sliced out, cutting away their bonds. Captain Dyne was the last to reach Aika, and with a grin and a wink once his hands were free, he descended down below.

The executioner sliced out with his weapon, throwing a sickle of pure energy out that cut off Vyse's retreat below. Within seconds, the Blue Rogue was joined by his comrade and the old man, and the rest of the guards formed up around the executioner.

The crowd roared, but this time…

They were _cheering for Vyse._ Urging him to kick the Valuan's asses, to cut that bloody executioner's head clean off _his_ shoulders. The arena orator let out an undignified squeal of panic and went running for safety, and the battle was joined.

Marco stared at the fight for only a few seconds, long enough to see that Vyse was grinning like a man possessed. Like he already knew the outcome.

Which, Marco supposed, Vyse did. Because Marco knew what would happen as well.

He turned and went racing through the crowds, searching his mind-map for the nearest sewer entrance.

Vyse had told him he was going to see something interesting, and he'd delivered. Marco didn't like being in anybody's debt. Luckily, he knew how to clear this one.

* * *

By the time that the other Blue Rogues made their way to a familiar bend in the catacombs, Marco was already waiting for them, opening up a secret passage and urging them through. He lingered by the open stone doorway for Vyse, Aika, and the grumpy old man who had gone with them, and shouted for them to hurry up when they finally appeared above, running down the slope of the storm drain.

"Come on, this way!" Marco hissed, already hearing the shouts of Valuan guards from behind them. Not one to pass up an escape, the two Blue Rogues and the grumpy prosthetic-wearing captain turned towards him, though Vyse still had his eyes narrowed. Marco looked up at the ceiling. "Relax, your dad and his crew are waiting for us. Now come on, we've got to close this passage up! Get inside already!"

They dashed through, and Vyse and Drachma quickly worked the mechanism, sliding the stone wall back into place, making the secret passage vanish from sight. They lingered in the darkness, breathing as shallowly as they could while the noise of the pursuing guards increased to a fever pitch...and then faded away, as they turned the corner along their supposed route, further into the depths of the sewers.

"How did you…" Vyse finally started, when it was safe to talk again. Marco just grinned at him.

"I told you. I _live_ down here. I know these old catacombs better than anyone alive. From where I've got your people waiting, you could make it back to the docks easy."

"What about the palace? Upper Valua?"

"What?" Marco frowned. "Why would you want to do that? You need to get back to your ship and make a break for it while you can!"

Vyse shared a look with Fina and shook his head. "Later. Come on, we've kept my dad waiting long enough."

There were laughs, hugs, and backslaps all around the Blue Rogues as they reunited, and after that was done, Captain Dyne just stood there and smiled at his son. "You had me worried for a bit there, Vyse. I was beginning to think you wouldn't make it."

"Well, you know me, captain. I had to make a dramatic entrance." Vyse chuckled, rubbing at the back of his head awkwardly. Marco looked between the two of them, amazed that the bold young man who'd stormed the Valuan Coliseum and fought against impossible odds could even be embarrassed.

"I'm proud of you, boy." Dyne said, setting a hand on Vyse's shoulder. He looked around. "And you've made some interesting friends." He held out a hand towards the old man. "Dyne, former captain of the _Albatross_."

After a slight delay, the old man returned the left-handed handshake. "Drachma. Captain of the _Little Jack_. Your boy and his girlfriend here were pretty damn insistent on making it here to save your asses."

"Girlfriend?" Dyne questioned, glancing towards Aika with a raised eyebrow. Marco looked between them, because that had been his guess as well, but he was startled to see Vyse looking like an animal caught in a spotlight, while Aika went red from her knees to her forehead, sputtering.

"I am _not_ his girlfriend!"

"She's not my girlfriend!" They stammered, mirroring each other. Dyne just ended up laughing his head off even more, and looked back to Drachma.

"Well. Captain Drachma, do you think we could impose on your good will a little further, and charter a return voyage to our home?"

"Aye, I s'pose." Drachma drawled, uncaring as Vyse and Aika struggled to get themselves back under control. "I came here to get a new harpoon cannon installed on the ship. They should be done by now, but if we're going to get you all out of here, we need to hurry."

"Where's Fina?" Vyse suddenly cut in with a frown. "They captured her the same time as you, dad."

Dyne shook his head. "They took her to the Upper City, to the palace. The Admiralty and the queen wanted her for their own reasons."

"Then that's where we're going." Vyse declared, looking over to Aika with his familiar, determined glare back in place. "Blue Rogues leave nobody behind. Right, dad?"

"When we're on board a ship or on a mission, boy, it's captain! I've told you that!" Dyne tried to correct him, but sighed and let it go. "I liked her, too, Vyse, but…"

"Captain." Vyse stared at his father, and the tension between them made everyone in the dimly lit catacomb alcove go still. "Either the Code applies, no matter what, or we throw it all away. What's it going to be?"

Marco knew that there was something important about that moment, but he was too young to know what it was exactly. He just knew that whatever it was, Vyse ended up winning it. His father looked away with a bittersweet smile.

"The unwritten rule." Dyne said quietly. "We never do things the easy way."

"No." Vyse agreed. "But we do them anyways." He looked over to Drachma. "Captain Drachma. Take my father and the rest of the _Albatross_ crew to the _Little Jack_ and get yourself launched. Once you're airborne, come looking for us in the Upper City. Aika and I will have Marco show us how to get there, and then we'll rescue Fina, one way or another. We'll need you to pull our fat from the fire afterwards."

"It's a poorly planned escape, boy." Drachma complained. "Who's to say that you won't end up captured and killed yourselves?"

Vyse chuckled, and a shadow of something grim passed over his face for just an instant before he shrugged it off. "We've gotten this far, haven't we?" He extended a hand out to Captain Dyne. "Good luck. Give Drachma all the help you can. Aika and I will see you on the other side."

Dyne pushed his son's hand away and pulled him in for a tight hug. "You come back alive, son, and bring the girls back with you."

"You've got it." Vyse said, hugging him back. They held it for a while longer, then Vyse turned to Marco. "Okay, kid. Directions. Where are they going, and where are we going?"

Marco did his best to not lose it in front of them all, but the sight of such warmth and familial love was chipping away at the hardened wall he'd built up over the years.

"I...Yes. This way." He settled for numb words and a blank expression, doing his best not to look at them.

They were full of hope, and life, and courage, all the things that had been ground out and stampeded over in Valua. It hurt to think he'd forgotten what that was like.

* * *

He shouldn't have followed Vyse. He should have just sent them all on their way, then put them out of his mind. But there was a lingering ache in his chest, a bitter taste in his mouth, and salty water tracking through the grime on his face.

Marco's feet moved on their own after his tears broke him, and it took him almost no time at all to catch up to the brown-haired pirate and his red-headed accomplice. He was breathing hard at the end, and caught them right at the bottom of a ladder that led up to the streets of Upper Valua. Panic had driven him the last hundred yards, because he knew better than most what was waiting for them up there.

Vyse stared back at him, waiting expectantly as Marco panted for air. "You...you can't go up there." He begged Vyse. "Please."

"I have to, Marco."

"No, you can't!" Marco yelled at him. "That's what my parents did, you idiot! They tried to escape Valua, and they were _killed_. I can't stand to watch you go like they did! Nobody can get past the Grand Fortress. It's impossible!"

There was shock on Vyse's face as he at last learned why Marco was so hard-hearted, but it faded quickly. The Blue Rogue shook his head, determination taking hold once more.

"Impossible is just a word to make people feel better about themselves when they quit." He told Marco. "When somebody tells me something's impossible, it makes me want to prove them wrong. What would have happened if the first sailors had listened to the people who said they were crazy for sailing away from the safe shores of their floating islands? If they'd listened to the people who said it was impossible? They would have never sailed off to other lands, and the world would be so much smaller."

Marco snuffled a bit. "Are all sailors as crazy as you, or is it just an air pirate thing?"

"We're Blue Rogues, Marco." Vyse corrected him warmly. "Being crazy helps."

Marco laughed a little at that, and wiped his nose. "You'd better not die then."

"I'm not planning on it. There's too much of a world for me left to see yet."

"Good." Marco bit his lip. "Vyse? Do...do you think I could be a sailor?"

Vyse grinned at him, threw him a thumbs up. "Absolutely. And when you do, Marco, I'll be waiting out there for you...in those wide open skies." Marco returned the gesture, thought about saying something else, but decided he didn't need to. Everything important had been said already, and he was smiling.

"Vyse, come on!" Aika hissed, already halfway up the ladder. "We've got to move!"

Vyse nodded, and started up after her, sparing Marco one last glance at the top of the shaft before stepping out into the world above. The manhole cover slid into place soon after, leaving Marco alone in the solitude of the sewers and catacombs once more.

He turned around and headed back the way he'd come wearing an unbreakable smile. He'd have to spend more time hanging around the docks after this, just to keep tabs on the rumors.

He had a name to listen for now...And something to be hopeful for.


	5. I Never Expected To Have Friends

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Five: I Never Expected to Have Friends**

* * *

Her name was Fina. She was a descendant of the Silver Civilization, and she had come to the skies of Arcadia to locate all the Moon Crystals.

The Valuans had somehow _known_ all of this. They had _known_ where she would be, what her mission was, and had decided to suborn her mission to their own ends...which, to her grief, was the very thing she had been sent to prevent in the first place. The power of the Moon Crystals had led to the Rains of Destruction thousands of years before, a planet-wide cataclysm.

Standing there in the throne room of Empress Teodora, a smug and vain woman who understood _nothing_ of the responsibility of such terrifying power, Fina could have crumpled in despair.

_Do you primitive __**idiots**__ even care about the danger you're threatening to unleash?! _She so desperately wanted to scream at them. She didn't, if only because she had seen the evil in their hearts, the ease by which they fell into the old and dangerous philosophy of 'might makes right'. They might torture her just for the sick pleasure of it. So she tried a more diplomatic tack...and was immediately disgusted with the result of it. How easily this old woman brushed aside the very real dangers. Who better to wield such power than the most powerful empire in the world, she boasted. Only the Empress's son tried to argue against it, but the youth who was older than her, but younger than every other authority in the room, was quickly shut down. The one voice of moderation, of tolerance, of anything less than outright aggression, had been silenced.

And that was when something inside of Fina finally _snapped_.

"I will never help you!" She glared up at the pompous woman in purple up on her meaningless throne, letting her grief and her helplessness fuel her anger. "I would sooner _die_ than help you to ruin this world!"

The Empress, predictably, lost her shit at that, and one of the guards in the throne room moved behind Fina and used the pole end of his weapon to knock her in the back of the head. She let out a cry and crumpled to the floor, dark spots lingering in her vision, groaning.

She thought she heard the stiff and ominous looking Admiral Galcian say something more, and the Silvite struggled to listen in.

He was going to take her to the Grand Fortress, that towering wall of reinforced stone and cannonworks which stood at the gates to the Valuan capital, where he would..._gain her assistance._ Fina shivered at that. She had been in this man's presence ever since she and the crew of the _Albatross_ had been pulled away from the burning ruins of Pirate's Isle. In that time, she had learned everything she needed to about Galcian. He was cold, he was ruthless, and he let nothing stand between him and his objectives. If the Blue Rogues hadn't surrendered, he would have destroyed the entire island to get to her.

She knew that worse awaited her after the transfer. Once she was beyond all help. Once she was completely in his power.

It was far too easy to dwell on that. Too easy to realize that she was beyond anybody's reach even now. Who could save her? Who could help her? Her coming to Arcadia had been a last, desperate act taken by the Elders, after their last agent had disappeared.

If only they had known just how unprepared she was for this. For the Valuans. If only Ramirez…

"There is one thing, Empress. My Vice Admiral, Ramirez, has…"

The pain and the bruise on the back of Fina's skull was forgotten in a moment. Her eyes went wide, the gasp was unconsciously given. _Ramirez? No. No, it couldn't be...not my Ramirez!_

A promotion, it seemed, was coming for Galcian's right-hand man. The troopers in the throne room hauled her up to her feet and forced her forwards, to a rapidly bitter future.

As she passed Galcian, Fina couldn't help but look up at him, searching the pepper-gray haired man in his wide cloak for something more. His Vice Admiral...it couldn't really be…

Galcian met her gaze, and the cold, implacably emotionless mask he had worn for the duration of the voyage to Valua slipped for just a few instants.

He _smiled_, smiled as if sensing her wonder, and when it became more and more predatory as the moments ticked by, he slightly inclined his head.

As if nodding at her.

The sob Fina unleashed should have broken every heart in the room with its anguish…

But the hearts of the Valuans were empty, and hard as stone.

* * *

They had dragged her away from the palace and to a train station close by, then loaded her on with an armed escort at the forward-most cabin. Everyone else on board had been gruffly told to get off, as the train was being redirected to the Grand Fortress without any stops. Aside from making sure she didn't do anything to make the rude soldiers nudge her along any faster, she let it all slide by.

_Ramirez. _

She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. A part of her just wanted to dismiss Galcian's smirk and nod as just a military officer grandstanding in his success. It was what she preferred, given the choice.

But...nothing else made as much sense, on thinking it all through. Who else could have told the Valuans how to find her? What she was, where she came from? Who else could have told them about the Moon Crystals?

And then, there came a noise in the cabin behind hers. Shouting. The explosion of a wild spell, screams of battle and of the pain it caused. The guards in her boxcar turned at the noise, one moved to investigate…

He got to within a foot of the door before it suddenly slammed inwards, smashing him in his helmeted face and knocking him to the floor. Fina gasped as two people she thought she would never see again came racing in, swords and bladed boomerang drawn.

"Hands off the girl, Valuan scum!" Vyse shouted. The guards shoved Fina back and charged for them, but Aika and Vyse were running strong on adrenaline, and tackled into them with practiced moves. Aika darted in first, sweeping their legs, then Vyse came in, slashing at them.

"Fina, duck!" Aika shouted, reaching into her belt pouch and pulling out a glowing stone. She hurled it at the Valuans they had dashed around, and the crystal exploded into brilliant light, filling the cabin with heat and noise that blew out every window. Vyse came down, leaping onto both of them and crushing them to the floor of the cabin, and when they pulled themselves out of the heap, Fina could only stare at the devastation of the magical grenade. The Valuans who had been her guards were all dead, sporting terrible burns on the visible parts of their body.

"Pyri crystals. Throw in case of emergencies." Aika snorted, pulling Fina back up to her feet. The Silvite girl yelped a bit at the rough handling, still in shock at the violence she'd witnessed. "You all right, Fina?"

"I...you...but _how…_" Fina stammered, her eyes darting between the two. _And why? Why would you come here, inside the stronghold of your enemy?_

"Long story." Vyse dismissed her questions, looking fatigued, but flushed with color and very alive. "Short version? Blue Rogues leave nobody behind. Not our families, and not you."

"But…" She swallowed.

"Later!" Aika said, already reaching for the door to the next cabin ahead of them. "We need to move, before…"

The door that they'd smashed open swung in a second time, and the ominous presence of Galcian, now bearing a thick wedged sword, walked into the train's compartment.

"Before _I_ appear, pirate wench?" Galcian proposed, his words disdainful, but his face calm as a still pond. "You two certainly are a handful, but the chase is over." He pointed with his sword at them. "Surrender the girl, and I will spare your lives."

Fina bit her lip, and looked between Aika and Vyse's back. The Blue Rogue brandishing the twin cutlasses didn't look back at her, even when a pair of Valuan soldiers came into the cabin, standing behind Galcian to reinforce him. Aika bit her lip and reached into her pouch, pulling out another crystal containing explosive red magic. Galcian just raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Really? A Pyri grenade? _That's_ your best move?" Galcian's grip on the hilt of his blade tightened enough to make the metal groan. "Put it away, or I kill you where you stand."

Aika looked ready to snap something back at him, but Vyse cut her off.

"Aika." The Blue Rogue said, his voice suddenly calm and steady. "Throw it out the window. That won't work with this one."

"But, Vyse!"

"Aika." Vyse repeated. "Enough. Throw it. Out. The. Window."

"...Aye-aye." The fiery redhead finally conceded, doing as she was ordered. The crystal, already glowing in her hand after being fed a charge, gleamed brighter as she chucked it out the broken out window next to her. It detonated outside, in a loud and brilliant burst that harmed nothing.

"So you do have some brains, boy." Galcian said. "Now be reasonable. She's just one girl. What value is that, compared to your life? Your freedom?"

"I am _never_ handing Fina over to you." Vyse countered, his voice heated and passionate. "I don't care who you are, or how powerful you are. You aren't taking her, you aren't taking us, and you're Not. Winning. Not today!"

Fina felt her heart stutter at the power of his words. They knew nothing about her. _Nothing_.

Who was this man, to race into certain death for her sake? Who was the wild woman who was forever at his side? She wanted to collapse for the relief of it. But then, the weight of their situation took hold. They were trapped, and Galcian...Galcian was a _monster._ Vyse couldn't hope to best him in combat.

And Galcian knew it, because that barely interested smirk he wore only deepened, his blade lowered from a point to a low ready position.

"You are brave, air pirate." Galcian said to Vyse, adopting a pose for a quick strike meant to end a battle. "Brave, but ultimately foolish. Do you really think you could defeat me?"

"Honestly?" Vyse said, taking a few steps back and rolling his head around on his shoulders. He wiggled his arms and his swords out, loosening his limbs. "Not a chance in hell."

"And yet you insist on this act of suicide."

"Suicide?" Vyse exclaimed, sounding surprised. He looked back over his shoulder to Aika, and then to Fina, giving them each a smile and a wink.

Then Fina heard something else, fast covering up the noise of the train as it rattled along the electrified rail. She looked out the broken windows to the source, and there, saw an unfamiliar ship painted green and yellow...and its open gunports, where the cannons were rolled into position.

"No, this isn't an act of suicide." Vyse went on nonchalantly, causing Galcian to blink. "I'm just buying some time."

Galcian's mouth opened to voice his next question, but that was when he finally heard the noise from outside the train as well. And for the first time since she had met the man, Fina saw Galcian gawk in surprise.

"Get DOWN!" Vyse yelled, stowing his blades and leaping for the girls again.

The airship outside of the train fired at the cabin, blasting a massive hole dead center in its side. The shots, solid balls not meant to explode and fragment, severed the compartment clean in half from ceiling to the floorboards.

The engine, the two cabins, and the front half of the broken compartment that Vyse, Aika, and Fina were on roared on down the tracks. The rear half of the shattered cabin, including Galcian, his soldiers, and the rest of the train, slowly lost speed and fell behind.

Vyse pulled himself back up, hissing a little. "Damn, think I took some shrapnel there…"

"Gee, you think?" Aika snarked at him. "Vyse, how the hell did…" She stopped talking as she pulled herself up, blinking a few times. "The Pyri Crystal. You told me…"

"To throw it out." Vyse chuckled, reaching a hand down towards Fina. "Where it exploded...and signaled the _Little Jack._"

"Vyse, anyone ever tell you just how crazy you are?" Aika asked him despairingly.

"Only you. Every day." He grinned, not the least bit apologetic for it. "You okay, Fina?"

"I'm unharmed." Fina swallowed, staring up into his eyes as he tugged her off of the floor again. "Why did you come back for me? You know nothing about me."

"I know that I wouldn't leave anybody to the Valuan's tender mercies if I could help it." Vyse replied. He looked back over his shoulder to the fading train section behind them, where Galcian stared at them with the promise of death in his eyes. "I know there's more about you than you were willing to tell us, and I know it's dangerous. Dangerous enough the Valuans would send _Galcian_ after you." He looked back at her, and shrugged. "But that can wait. We still have to get _out of here_ in one piece."

"Which isn't going to be easy, you know." Aika reminded him, glancing over to Fina with a hint of reproachment. The _Little Jack_ pulled in close, and a rope ladder was thrown over the side down towards them. "Escaping the Grand Fortress? It's never been done. Marco had that much right."

"We never do things the easy way." Vyse laughed, unmoved in the face of certain death. He took hold of the ladder and gestured for the two girls to go up first. "Come on, Fina. I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of these black, cloudy skies."

So was she, Fina decided. In that moment, his invitation to run away meant more to her than he could have known. Maybe she'd be able to show him some day, if they did get away from Valua.

Fina climbed the ladder, and changed her destiny.

* * *

_The Grand Fortress_

_Inner Gates_

Of course, there was still the small matter of getting past the rest of the Valuan defenses. The speed of their escape and the chaos left in their wake had given them some advantages, but there was still one Valuan warship sitting at station by the massive gateway...and the Grand Fortress was already turning to close them in.

"They sent word on ahead." Dyne said, after a moment to reflect on it.

"Aye, did you think they wouldn't?" Drachma asked him.

"We'll have to disable them first, or else we'll never reach the door." Vyse declared, having taken position at the ship's wheel. The vessel was primitive, but Fina could tell that its original construction had been improved on. "Captain Dyne, we could use your men down below manning the cannons. I think it's time to see if this tough little ship has what it takes to be a blockade runner."

"We're on it!" Dyne wasted no time in shouting out orders to the rescued crewmembers of the _Albatross_, waiting at the stairs that led belowdecks. "You heard my son, boys! Ready the cannons and prepare for combat!"

"You've got the helm, boy." Drachma rumbled. "Now seems as good a time as any to test out the new Harpoon Cannon."

Fina reacted the same as Vyse and Aika did, looking out to the nose of the _Little Jack_ where a monstrously sized extension of shaped and tempered steel plated with brass had been placed. In spite of its size, it didn't seem to unbalance or make the small ship look garish. In fact, it was more like the ship had been waiting all of its life for the add-on.

Fina narrowed her eyes as she evaluated the construction. "Wait…" She leaned forward, sizing up just how _unusual_ the construction actually was. The Harpoon Cannon wasn't just reinforced metal, no. In fact, it seemed as though the outer surface was interlaced with…

"Your Harpoon has a sequential Moonstone energy lattice built into it." Fina declared, looking at Captain Drachma. "And it was not part of the original construction."

The old man turned to look at her and raised his left eyebrow. "You noticed. Know a thing or two about weapons design, do ye, girl?"

Fina blinked and looked away, blushing a bit. "Some." She conceded.

"A Moonstone _what?_" Vyse repeated. He spun the wheel and narrowed their silhouette as the Valuan frigate readied its cannons and tool aim. "Captain, mind telling me what that means?"

"Oh, I think your blonde friend can do a better job of it than I can." Drachma drawled, cocking his human hand at his waist and giving Fina the floor.

The Silvite swallowed once, keenly aware of the interested eyes on her and shook her head. "It… the Harpoon can be charged with spiritual energy. Just like when you cast a spell. It reinforces the harpoon for added durability, and should also create an aura around the whole of the projectile that will increase the effectiveness of any attack by a factor of...around ten?" Fina looked to Drachma for clarification, and received an unusually warm smile from the gruff old fellow and a single, sharp nod of his head.

"How did you know that it wasn't standard issue?" Drachma pressed her gently. Fina looked away, and Drachma chuffed. "Lass, you're not in trouble. I'm just curious."

"I…" Fina exhaled. "The Valuan ships I saw had nothing like this. They wouldn't have to. They build their ships with so many guns, it's unnecessary." She looked up at the captain. "You modified the Harpoon Cannon for something else, though. If my guess is right...it will tear through the hull of that warship like tissue paper."

Drachma chuckled darkly. "Well, Vyse, seems you're not as useless as I thought. You went and rescued a girl with brains. Unlike the other one."

"HEY!" Aika shouted, stomping her boot into the deck. "I'm getting sick and tired of being dumped on!"

"You're angry? Good." Drachma grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her off to the side of the room. "Then you can help me charge the cannon. It collects a charge naturally, but there's a moonstone access line to the capacitor that you and I have business with. We need to get it ready to fire as soon as possible." He looked back to Vyse and Fina. "As for you, girl, stay with the 'hero' there, keep him from doing anything completely irresponsible with my ship."

Still blushing from all the attention that had been directed towards her, Fina nodded mutely and stayed close to Vyse.

The fight was quick, brutal, and over incredibly fast. Against a ship with vastly more cannons, Vyse sailed the _Little Jack's_ heart out, wielding its speed and smaller size to great effect. The tight flying kept the Valuan ship from wielding its full broadsides, and the crew of the _Albatross_ fired back and dealt with the damage and repairs when they happened. All the while, Drachma and Aika channeled their own power through the ship's moonstone feeder line, sacrificing their own spellcasting potential to build up the main cannon's power. When Drachma shouted out that the charge was ready, Vyse pulled in tight behind the unaware Valuan frigate and punched the firing toggle set up beside the helm.

The Harpoon Cannon began to glow with wild orange light as the projectile began to rotate, slowly at first, and then as quickly as any drill. The _Little Jack_ shuddered as the shot finally launched, a rocket on a long, reinforced steel and moonstone tether…

And the glowing harpoon passed through the frigate from stem to stern, rocking it with explosions and tearing it apart. Still glowing, the harpoon retracted back on its rope, dealing even more damage.

The _Little Jack_, the harpoon reset back on the bow, turned and screamed towards the closing doors of the Grand Fortress while the destroyed Valuan warship collapsed down towards the floor of the long tunnel through the rock.

Fina held her breath the same as everyone else, and found herself clutching onto Vyse's shoulder. She didn't dare touch his arms, as rigid as they were guiding the vessel towards the still narrowing gap. He clenched his teeth, not looking anywhere else but to their escape, whatever remark he made under his breath drowned out by the shouts of the other Blue Rogues as they cheered him and the _Little Jack_ forwards.

By the narrowest of margins, scraping paint off the side of the hull as they cleared it, Vyse sailed the_ Little Jack_ out past the gates of the Grand Fortress. Chants for success became cheers of victory, with Aika racing over and glomping onto Vyse's other side hard, almost jostling him clear of the wheel.

"We made it! We made it, Vyse!" The redhead cheered.

Dyne came up from belowdecks, sweaty but beaming with pride. "You realize son, you're the first person to ever escape from the Grand Fortress now? That's going to be a hard act for the rest of us to follow."

"I'm sure you'll think of something." Vyse chuckled, freeing his arm and shoulder from both Aika and Fina before giving each of them his best grin. "For right now, though, we'd better get the heck out of here. Captain Dyne, where are we headed?"

"Home." Captain Dyne ordered, giving Captain Drachma just enough of a questioning look to get a nod in reply. "Just long enough to let everyone know we're alive...and to take what we'll need before we head out. The Valuans will be looking for us after this mess, and we can't expose our families to them a second time. But we've got places to hide where they won't be looking."

Fina wanted to reach for Vyse again, but the words of the young man's father were terrible things, plucking away at her. Even in victory, they were fearful...they had a reason to be.

But she could give them relief and resolution. It would just mean doing the unthinkable...trusting them with the truth.

The words of the Elders rang in her head, to trust no one, to tell no one. Their pride and joy, the most promising of the pair of their generation, had gone down and failed, and they could not risk failing again.

But the Valuans already knew why she had come. They knew more than anybody should have...and though Fina refused to give voice to the only logical reason why…

She searched the confident face of Vyse, the protective posture of his father, the vivacious and ebullient nature of Aika.

These Blue Rogues had come into hell, had stayed there longer...for her.

If she could not trust Vyse and Aika, then her quest was doomed to fail. She could not do it alone. Would they say yes, if they knew?

_They'll never get the chance if you hold to this useless silence._

So Fina coughed, raised a hand for their attention, and looked to Captain Dyne, leader of the Blue Rogues. "They won't come for you." She told him, and as the older man's gaze sharpened, she looked away, seeking comfort in the warmer, though no less puzzled eyes of Vyse instead. "They were after me. Because of what I know, and what I came here to do."

"And what would that be?" Dyne asked, softly and carefully.

Fina closed her eyes. "I will tell you the truth...once we reach your home. Because once I do, I will then ask for your help. And then, regardless of your answer, I'll have to leave. The only way your families will be safe is when the Valuans know I am no longer in your company. And the only way the world will be safe is if the Valuans _never_ get their hands on me, and I complete my mission."

"Then I'm in." Vyse said. The suddenness of it made Fina snap her head up in disbelief.

"Wuh...what? But I...I haven't even…"

"You're going to tell us what's going on? Great." Vyse reassured her. "But I don't need to know anything else to know that you're going to need help with whatever's going on. And anything that pisses the Valuans off? I'm always up for it." Without looking, he grabbed hold of Aika's arm and pulled his friend and shipmate in next to him. Aika let out a squeak of protest at first, but fell into a blushing silence as his arm came around her midsection to hold her close. "And so is Aika. We're your friends, and we don't leave friends hanging."

Fina could feel her eyes burn as they started to mist up, and she wiped at them even as she let out a sobbing laugh. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Vyse said, grabbing hold of her sleeve and pulling her arm in. "Right, Aika? Friends?"

"Uh...oh, fine, Vyse." The redhead finally got out with another grumble, mustering an uneasy grin as she clasped Fina's hand in her own. "Friends."

"I never expected to have friends." Fina confessed. "I had thought I was all alone in this."

"You're never alone, Fina." Aika said, finally saying something comforting as she composed herself.

"Not anymore." Vyse added.

"No." Fina smiled at them, the tears fast fading and her heart swelling with joy, that out of such despair, she could find such happiness and triumph. "Not anymore."


	6. Don't Call Me Useless

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Six: Don't Call Me Useless**

* * *

_Mid-Ocean_

_Pirate Isle_

Of course, there was one thing that both Vyse and Dyne insisted on doing before the _Little Jack_ departed Pirate Isle. Given the gravity of the news Fina had dropped on them, about Moon Crystals and the ancient super weapons, or 'Gigas' that they could control, it was more appropriate than ever. That was how they found themselves in the underground base of the island, with the _Little Jack_ floating at anchor in a docking port meant for a ship easily twice its size, with Vyse kneeling in front of his father and the rest of his father's crew, while Aika and Fina stood back beside his mother, watching silently.

"From this day forth, I acknowledge my son, Vyse the Determined, as a man." Dyne intoned, steady and solemn. "He has beaten challenges that any other man would have balked at, and emerged victorious, and through his actions, has saved my life and the lives of my crew in the face of a superior enemy. Now he sails towards a new horizon, and seeks the blessings of the Moons as he takes the Oath of the Blue Rogues. Are there any here who would speak against him receiving it?"

Vyse kept his head bowed, not because he had to, but because it felt right. All of his life he had worked towards this moment, and now it had come. He was a man in his father's eyes at last...and if nobody spoke against it, he would be a fully-fledged Blue Rogue Captain in his own right.

Nobody spoke against it. Nobody could, not here, and not after what he had done to prove himself worthy of the honor. The responsibility.

Dyne let out a soft grunt. "Hearing no voice of dissent, let us continue. Who would stand by this man, and support him as a Captain of the Blue Rogues?"

"I do." Aika answered his father, and he heard the gentle tapping of her boots against the wooden planks of the docks. There was no hesitation in her voice, and Vyse found himself smiling in spite of himself.

Forever by his side, forever his friend and closest ally. Forever bright and cheerful in public, a fiery aggressor to her enemies, and rarely soft and demure.

"Aika of the Blue Rogues. You will vouch for his character?" Dyne continued. "You will stand by his side, supporting your Captain, regardless of the storms of life that he will weather?"

"I will." Aika replied, and set a hand down on Vyse's shoulder. He felt his back go a little straighter at it.

"Then Vyse, son of Dyne, speak the Oath of The Blue Rogues, and assume the mantle."

Vyse drew in a breath, holding it close as the words buzzed in his brain. He knew them as well as any other Blue Rogue. Better, even, for he was a captain's son, and had spent his life in that shadow, forever trying to reach outside of it.

They had never meant as much as they did now, and they had never been so hard to say.

"Blue Rogues leave nobody behind." He began, giving each word the weight it deserved. "Blue Rogues never back down from a greater danger. Blue Rogues always help out those in need. Blue Rogues never give up."

Vyse lifted his head up, and met his father's eyes. In that moment, he felt stronger than he ever had, and he wondered if his father could sense the steel in his gaze. "And Blue Rogues Fly Free."

He expected the response, but the shout from every other crew member in the open space, breaking the silence completely, still made him jump. _**"Blue Rogues Fly FREE!"**_

Dyne finally smiled. "Stand, Vyse...a _Captain_ of the Blue Rogues." The cheers after that were deafening, and Vyse allowed himself to be pulled into a strangling pile of a hug between Aika and his mother. His dad just stood back with his arms folded, and Fina…

Vyse blinked, catching her fiddling with her sleeve a little bit and looking away as she bit her lip. Still adjusting to everything.

"So!" Drachma shouted from the deck of the _Little Jack_, pulling his attention away from the Silvite girl. "Now that your little ceremony's done, we'd best be shoving off. Staying put is bad for our health right now, boy, and I'm still captain of the _Little Jack_, so don't be getting a swelled head." Vyse rolled his eyes and nodded, but was reassured a little bit when his father pulled him from the swarm of women.

"You don't need a ship to be a captain, son." Dyne told him. "You just have to _lead_. Understand?"

Vyse thought about that for a while, then chuckled. "Seems I've been ready for a while, then."

Dyne smirked. "I suppose you have." He stepped away and raised his voice. "Now, then. You're provisioned?"

"Yes, Captain Dyne!" Aika snapped to. "We finished loading up our supplies right before you showed up for the ceremony!"

"At ease, Aika." Dyne chuckled. "I'm not your captain anymore, remember?" Vyse looked over to his friend and grinned, and Aika's cheeks pinked before she looked away and nodded once. Vyse's mother hugged her son one last time and kissed his cheek.

"You look after those girls now, you hear me?" She told her only child.

"Of course I will." Vyse agreed happily.

"And don't string them along." She went on, frowning just a little. "All right?"

Vyse, confused as to her meaning, blinked. She must have seen his confusion, because she smiled sadly and shrugged. "It's just something to think about, all right? A woman's heart is more fragile than you know."

"Um. Okay?" Vyse said uneasily. What was she trying to say? There were times his mother flat-out confused him, and this was apparently one of them.

"BOY!" Drachma bellowed again. "We're casting off! Heave to and get on board if you're coming!"

"Sure, Drachma!" Vyse shouted back. He turned back to look at Aika and Fina. "Get on board, girls. I'll be with you in a minute."

He hugged his mother one last time, shook his father's hand, and nodded to the rest of the crew who waved them off. He ran up the gangplank to the _Little Jack_ and pulled it up and away. As soon as Aika retrieved the mooring lines, the _Little Jack_ started to reverse itself.

The massive chains that controlled the hidden doorway to the underground base creaked as they were unwound, and the way out revealed itself. Sunlight streamed into the base, casting everything into sharp relief as they turned around and pulled away.

Vyse tried to memorize how it all looked, both the hidden base and the island itself as they soared off. He stood alone at the rail while Drachma managed the helm, and was there in silence for what seemed like forever before Fina and Aika joined him.

Fina's strange companion, the Cupil, pulled away from her wrist and resumed its normal shape, hovering around her head without a care. The blond-haired Silvite ran a hand through her hair, sweeping back a small bit that had escaped her headdress and was blowing wild in the wind.

"It's strange." She finally said, her voice so soft that he was left wondering if she'd meant to say it aloud at all.

Aika, of course, dove right into it. "What is? Leaving home? A bit, I'll admit." The red-headed Blue Rogue looked over at Vyse and smiled at him for a moment before returning her attention to Fina. "But you did it too, right? To try and save the world?"

"That's not what's strange." Fina said, her face screwed up in concentration. "Dyne, and your mother. I never had that."

"You weren't close to your parents?" Vyse asked, sensing how sensitive the topic was.

He wanted to kick himself after her response.

"I never knew my parents." The Silvite said, her mind somewhere distant.

Vyse was glad that Aika took the initiative again, siding up beside the blonde and wrapping an arm around her side, hugging her gently. What could they say to that, a man whose parents still lived and a girl who had lost her own, but had been fortunate enough to have shared his after?

Vyse turned his gaze away from the receding shape of his home and looked out to the horizon. More and more, he realized just how fortunate he was. His life was proving to be the exception, and not the norm.

Foolish as it was, he made a promise to himself that he would find a way to change that.

* * *

There was a minor roadblock in the path of their success, but Vyse was grateful that they had discovered it early on. It seemed that the Silvites Fina hailed from were a _wildly_ different people compared to the rest of Arcadia. Concepts such as cannonballs were foreign to her, and learning that she had never had to deal with _money_ or _trade_ before... Those had all been eye-openers.

That all paled when lined up with the one small, major, _mission-threatening problem _of Fina's experience. Or lack of, more appropriately. Her people had sent her on a quest to retrieve the Moon Crystals and save the world…

And she didn't have the damndest clue how to defend herself. Apparently, her companion Cupil was supposed to do all of the fighting for her. Vyse was the first to point out how ludicrous that idea was...and Aika was quick to suggest some more serious training was due. Fina had winced, but agreed when the facts were laid out in front of her.

Drachma grumbled and said he'd manage the helm while the two Blue Rogues started to work her up to snuff, so while the old man kept the ship steady, Vyse, Aika, and Fina ran wind sprints across the deck, as well as other basic exercises. The blonde was graceful, attractive, a princess plucked from her strange little world, and had next to nothing in terms of endurance. Vyse was only sweating. Her entire body was shaking by the tenth set, barely able to hold her up.

"You really ought to think about changing your clothes, _princess_." Aika pointed out, hopping up onto a crate tied down on the deck and kicking her feet lazily. The exercise had brightened the color in the redhead's face, and she seemed entirely too pleased at Fina's discomfort. "Fighting in a dress? That can't be too comfortable. I'm barely able to put up with watching you try to run in that thing."

"This dress...is the last piece...of my people." Fina panted, bent over slightly with her hands on her knees. "I am not giving it up."

"I'm just saying, you nearly tripped about four times so far. And something like that can't be too comfortable with all of the flop sweat you've got going on."

"This is Silvite nanomesh fabric...with adaptive moisture-wicking layers." Fina added, affixing Aika with a glare. "Unlike _your_ clothes, it's odor and stain resistant."

Vyse raised an eyebrow at that, while Aika suddenly looked just like a cat whose tail and hair was pointed upright in a show of dominance. She all but snarled in reply. "Are you saying I _smell bad?"_

"I'm saying that I could wear this dress and the bodysuit underneath it every day and still smell like silverlilies."

"Why, you…!"

"All right, that's enough." Vyse finally stepped in, his hands held up and out when he moved between them. "Aika, you smell fine. But you look like you could use a drink. Why don't you run down to the galley and get yourself one? And bring us back up some water as well? I'm going to spar with Fina for a bit."

Hair still on end and her cheeks just a few shades lighter than her pigtails, Aika let out an angry huff and stormed past them, jostling Fina with her shoulder as she passed by. The exhausted Silvite almost fell down, but Vyse moved quickly, bracing her body with his arm. It didn't escape his notice how soft and pleasant she felt as his forearm wrapped around her waist, and his fingers came to a stop over her stomach.

He almost missed the soft gasping _meep_ she let out, because it was nearly lost in the sound of Cupil detaching from her wrist again. She was still for about half a second before she quickly scooted away from him, and Vyse held his hands up in a peaceful gesture.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault she's so abrasive." Fina said, grabbing one side of the veil of her headdress and pulling it around to partially cover her face.

"She means well, believe me." Vyse went on. "You have to understand. Your way of speaking, of acting...it's like the sort of thing they teach nobles. It's nothing we ever had to learn ourselves. And the things we did learn are strange to you. It's an adjustment for us as much as it is for you."

"Is that why she keeps on calling me _princess_?" Fina asked carefully. She had her wind back in her. Good.

"A little." Vyse conceded. "But it's also...um. Aika has this thing about nicknames. She gives them to the people she's close to. My old man, for example, is the cap'n. And the huskra back at our village, the purple one? His name's Pow, but she just calls him furball."

"So, it's a term of endearment, instead of an insult?"

"I...think so?" Vyse shrugged. "If she meant it as an insult, she'd come off snotty."

Fina harrumphed, and wiped her forehead with her sleeve. "So what's her nickname for you?"

Vyse opened his mouth to answer, paused. Frowned. Really thought about it. "I actually don't think she ever gave me one."

Fina blinked her soft green eyes at that. "Hm. Isn't that interesting." She mused, and a corner of her mouth quirked up.

Feeling distinctly uneasy at the direction of the conversation, Vyse coughed. "But she isn't wrong. That dress of yours is very pretty, but the hem severely limits your mobility. Your legs need to have more freedom of movement for you to be able to run well. And you will have to run for your life at some point. Something as big as what we're trying to do? I'd guarantee it."

Fina cocked her head to side, considering Aika's suggestion, now tempered with the wisdom and explanation of Vyse. "You're certain?"

"This is coming from someone who's spent most of his life running. At things, or away from them." Vyse reassured her.

Fina deliberated a few more seconds, then held out her hand. "Give me one of your blades."

"What?" Vyse blinked. Fina just stared at him, hand still outstretched. With some trepidation, Vyse unsheathed his secondary cutlass, gleaming with red light along the whole of its expanded moonstone edge, and placed it hilt-first into her grip.

She took the blade down to the side of her left hip, grabbing hold of the fabric and pulling it away from her waist.

"What are you…?!"

"This fabric is meant to self-repair." Fina told him calmly. "If I'm to free up the hem, I need a moonstone-sourced weapon to effect the cut."

As Vyse stared on, caught between trying to stop her or whether to avert his eyes, Fina powered up the blade with her own spiritual energy, then cut a long gash down the side of the dress. To the relief of his sensibilities, she wore form-hugging underleggings, like a thin set of pants, beneath the long skirt.

Underleggings that did nothing to hide her shapely legs. Feeling his face warming up instantly, Vyse quickly glanced skyward as she finished the cut. Fina sighed and handed him the blade back. "There, finished."

"And...won't it fray?" Vyse asked, taking the blade back and mustering only furtive glances until he was sure her leggings were out of immediate view. "A cut that rough?"

Fina laughed a bit at that and shook her head. "No, silly. The frayed edges will re-hem themselves in a bit. I just have to keep the edges apart while it's effecting repairs."

Which she did, Vyse noted, watching in amazement as the ragged ends of the now cut skirt seemed to...to _glow_ and heal after a few seconds. In less than half a minute's time, they finished their work, and Fina released the first flap of her side-slit skirt, nodding in satisfaction.

"Wow." Vyse finally said, amazed at how good her dress still looked after the change. "You could make a killing selling that fabric. Especially in Nasrad. They love their fabrics there. It's one of their most popular exports."

"Let's save the world first, why don't we?" Fina responded, nodding to Cupil, who chirped once and then floated down beside her hand.

Vyse drew out his other cutlass, chuckled, and beckoned for her to attack him.

* * *

They stopped for the night on the other side of a stone reef, making landfall next to another profitable Discovery; an enormous Silver Moonstone pit, a rich cache of undiscovered treasure which could be refined into power stones for ship power generators, or weapons augment crystals, or a hundred different other things. Drachma had taken some of the most choice pieces they could lift out by hand for himself, which would mean a detour to Sailor's Island both for Vyse to turn in the Discovery and for Drachma to sell off the haul. Vyse wondered for a moment why nobody had ever found this place before, though on reflection, the answer was clear enough. Only the Harpoon Cannon's ability to blast through the floating barrier of stones had allowed them access. Other ships which lacked sufficient firepower would have never even tried for it.

While Vyse and Drachma set about preparing a dinner of fire-roasted Sky Sardis and canned vegetables, Aika opted to use the downtime in a more productive manner to train their newest party member. Vyse caught the old man staring at the three of them more often, and the length of his looks indicated more than a passing interest in whether or not they were injured. He was trying to figure them out, Vyse realized after a time. Which he was fine with. He was still trying to figure out Drachma himself.

Under the barest glow of sunset remaining, and the silver moon shining high above them, Aika let out another angry grunt as she batted away Cupil, disarming Fina of both her only means of offense and defense.

"Come on!" Aika snarled, swiping her boomerang just off to the side of Fina and sending the girl sprawling backwards in a heap from the lazy slash. "Don't just lie there, get up and _fight!_" Fina did, in her own fashion. She rolled over to her hands and knees, and used the position to lurch to her feet and run away from Aika. The fiery redhead chased after her, screaming like a banshee and swinging her boomerang in wide arcs that Vyse knew were meant to frighten more than cause actual injury. "What'll you do when your little pet isn't there to help you, huh?! You just gonna curl up and die?"

Fina yelped again as the edge of Aika's boomerang whistled past her elbow, and brought a hand up, pointing it behind her blindly as she ran on. "Moons, give me strength!" She gasped, and fired off a tiny bolt of magical fire. Aika saw it coming and scowled, not even bothering to try and nullify it. Instead, she took it along the front edge of her boomerang, setting off a small explosion...and then charged through the smoke.

"Aika, take it easy on her!" Vyse shouted over at them, stoking the fire again. "She's not used to this!"

"You think the _Valuans_ are going to take it easy on her? On us?!" Aika shouted back, and Vyse recoiled from the heat of it.

"Something's got her dander up." Drachma observed in a low drawl. Vyse looked over to the old man, slowly turning the fish on their spit, and Drachma just stared back at him from his one good eye. "D'ye suppose you can figure it out..._captain_?"

Vyse struggled to suss it out, but didn't reach an answer quickly enough. Instead, Fina's foot got caught on a bit of exposed rock jutting up from the ground, and she went tumbling to her hands and knees again. Aika was on her in an instant, turning her over and pinning her to the grass with her legs holding Fina's down, her free arm pressed to the blonde's shoulder, and her boomerang raised high for a killing blow that never came.

The two girls lay there, heaving for air, Fina terrified and Aika as mad as Vyse had ever seen her.

Aika buried her boomerang halfway into the ground beside Fina's head and swore. "Moons! Have you _ever_ had to do anything except stand there and look pretty?! I swear, you're more useless than I was when I was _seven!_"

Something in Fina seemed to snap at the insult, and her green eyes flashed with an angry, silver glow as she roared and shoved Aika off of her. The air around her seemed to shimmer, and Vyse was stuck halfway between a crouch and a full stand, frozen in place as his body and mind argued whether to intervene or stay put.

Glowing with intense silver light, Fina shoved herself up into a sitting position. "Don't! Don't call me **useless**!" There was killing intent in that aura, and Vyse could see Aika struggling to swallow. To _breathe_.

At the last moment, as the tension hung between them, Aika conjured up her newest skill, a short burst of reflective aura that could prevent any magic, fair or foul, from reaching her. It fought off Fina's power long enough for the blonde girl to come back to herself, and she shoved the half-summoned spell away with a shake of her head. Cupil bobbed over next to her, having finally recovered from the abuse he'd taken.

"Don't call me useless." Fina repeated, though there was a tinge of sorrow there as well now. "Why, Aika? Why are you doing this?"

"You want to know why I'm so tough on you?" Aika growled out, calmer than before, but no less livid on the inside. "It's because we're sailing into the unknown! Because it's us against the Valuans for the sake of the world! Because we _will_ end up getting into a fight, and I need to know that when we do, that you'll have my back." She jabbed a finger towards Vyse without ever looking at him. "That you'll have his. Because if you can't fight, if you don't, then we all end up dead, and they win. You get me now, Princess?"

Fina sat there, gaping up at Aika, the both of them still breathing hard. Aika fumed for a little longer, then pulled her boomerang up out of the ground in one smooth jerk. She spun around and stormed past the men, grabbing a plate that Drachma had just finished preparing and ignoring his cry of protest.

"I'll eat on the ship." She growled, and stormed away.

Vyse finally remembered how to move, and went over to Fina, helping her up as she sniffled and wiped at her eyes. "You all right?" He asked carefully.

"She hates me."

"No." Vyse quickly, and forcefully, dismissed that notion. "She doesn't hate you. She just thinks you're…" And there, he stopped, stammered, and bit down on his tongue, cursing at himself.

The smile Fina gave him was bittersweet. "You can say it. She thinks I'm weak."

"I didn't mean it like that." Vyse tried to backpedal. Tried, and failed. The sick look on her face didn't go away. "Aika's a handful. She takes a while to warm up to someone. Don't worry. She has your back. And once you two finally do hit it off, she'll go to hell and back for you."

"She has a right to be frustrated. I'm frustrated, too." Fina admitted. "Nothing I ever learned, or trained for, or studied, prepared me to do this. To be here." The Silvite swallowed and looked down. "I want to be better. I'm _trying_. I know I'm not what she wants me to be."

"But to do something like this...I mean, your people asked you to save the world. Why wouldn't they prepare you for that?"

She laughed once, a sharp and sick noise. "Because I wasn't the one who was supposed to do this. That's what they had him for, and they trained him to be a warrior. They sent him, and then...then, when we didn't hear from him for years, they sent me, because there was no other choice."

Vyse nodded slowly, and a sick little thought came into his mind. "Who is he?"

"He's…" Fina started, and went a shade paler still, closing her eyes. Unseen pain was felt and filtered away behind her eyelids, and when she opened them, there was calm. "It doesn't matter. We lost him. He's dead by now. He'd...he'd have to be." She seemed uncertain of that, but Vyse had something else to prod at.

"At the end there...you had a lot of power you were calling up. It looked like one hell of a spell you were conjuring." He pointed out. "Aika hit a nerve when she said that, didn't she?"

Fina nodded, swallowing down the words hard.

Vyse put a hand on her shoulder. "Did...did _he_ call you useless?" The Blue Rogue asked her gently. Her head jerked up as if he'd shot her, eyes wide, and Vyse quickly shook his head. "I'm sorry, I...I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that." Because she already had.

Vyse stepped away from her and motioned to Drachma. "Dinner's ready. Why don't you get a bite to eat? You'll feel better afterwards." He waited for her to nod again, then walked back to the campfire, where Drachma handed him a skewer of roasted fish and vegetables.

"Ye'd best go see to your other girl there, lad." Drachma uttered quietly, motioning back to the ship with his head ever so briefly. "I'll keep an eye on the wallflower here."

Aika was right where Vyse expected her to be, sitting up on the roof of the _Little Jack's_ pilot house, her legs dangling, and muttering under her breath between mouthfuls. She wasn't paying any attention to him, but Vyse could tell by the angle of her head that she knew he was there. He had never been able to sneak up on her.

Vyse sighed and ran a hand over the back of his scalp. "Well. That could have gone better."

"She's not ready for this." Aika said, swallowing down a mouthful of food.

"Were we ever ready?" Vyse countered. "I seem to recall our first mission involving a crazy girl with a knife, and me getting a scar out of it."

"Yeah, and _then_ we had the crew of the _Albatross_ to back us up. Your father, even. He nearly grounded us for a month after that. This? Now? There's nobody who will rescue us if things go sideways."

"I know that. And so does Fina." Vyse placated her. "But you can't go after her like a psychotic drill sergeant. She'll get to our level, but it'll take time. Remember, we've had years of training. She's brand new to this life. She actually started to improve a little when I was sparring with her. You can't tell me you didn't notice a little bit of improvement when you fought her tonight. That is, before you went full on lunatic and tried to cave her head in."

"She did have a good pattern of blocking and attacking with her little pet there for a while." Aika muttered. She looked down at him for a moment, then rolled her eyes and looked away.

Vyse harrumphed and smiled. It was a win and he'd take it. "Hey, scoot over."

Aika picked up her plate and set it in her lap. "You sure this roof can handle your weight?"

"If it hasn't caved in yet from _you_ sitting on it…"

"Hey! You jerk!" She kicked out at him, and Vyse laughed and dodged away from the half-hearted swing of her boot. He hopped up onto the roof beside her, taking the punch to the shoulder he had coming. Vyse took a hefty bite of his skewer, chewing on it as the two stared up at the silver moon. He enjoyed the food and waited, knowing the pattern. She'd talk, once the silence and her own nerves finally got to her.

And she did, setting her plate behind her before bringing her knees up to her chest and leaning her head over them. "I'm scared, Vyse."

He swallowed, glad that he'd been given enough time to chew it thoroughly. "You don't think I am?" They met each other's eyes with their peripheral vision only briefly before she looked away again. "Fina will get stronger, but you need to back off. Try wearing the kid gloves for a change."

That might have been the wrong thing to say, as she puffed her cheeks out and soured quickly. "What's wrong, Vyse? Angry that I'm picking on your girlfriend?"

He groaned at that, throwing his hands into the air. "Why is this so important to everyone?! Drachma thinks you and I are together, you think I'm dating Fina, and my mom…"

Aika twisted her neck around, scrutinizing him. "What about your mom?"

Vyse sighed, and took another bite off of the skewer, using the time to calm himself down. "It doesn't matter. Right now, Fina needs us to be there for her. Right now, she's all alone. You heard her; she didn't really have a family growing up. That's what _we_ have to be."

"Where do I come into this? I thought she had you for the touchy feely stuff." Aika said sarcastically.

"She has nobody else right now, Aika." Vyse met her gaze with the sternest look he'd ever turned on her. "She needs us. _Both_ of us. We promised her we were her friends."

Aika's face softened a bit. "Yeah. I know, but…"

"Why do you hate her so much anyways?" Vyse pressed her, tired of the dithering. He went straight for the heart of it.

Aika blinked rapidly at that, and Vyse polished off his kebab, chewing noisily while he waited for her to put together an answer.

She slumped her head back against her legs and looked out over the horizon again.

"I don't hate her." She finally confessed. "But she's so _weak_, and I'm worried, and...I don't know. I'm jealous, okay? It feels like she's taking you away from me."

"I'm not going anywhere." Vyse said, relieved. This, he understood. He tossed the now empty stick onto her plate behind them, then reached out and squeezed her hand. "You're still my best friend, you know that, right?"

For once, she didn't freeze up when he touched her. She did the opposite, visibly relaxing and setting her legs down before leaning sideways. Her head came to rest against his shoulder, and she squeezed his hand back.

"Who else would be?" She qualified, offering a weak laugh. She wasn't entirely at peace, he could tell, there was still something eating at her. She must have sensed it, because she punched him in the leg.

"Ow."

"Stop thinking so hard, you dummy. We can't afford to replace your brain."

"True. We could afford to replace yours, though." He stuck his tongue out and made a raspberry, and she laughed.

"You're such an ass."

"You still like me?"

Her breathing slowed, and he could feel that she was settling more of her weight against his side. "Yeah."

* * *

_Sailor's Island_

_The Next Day_

"...all I'm saying is, it's kind of creepy that some dumb bird still _wearing a piece of its eggshell_ coughs up hairballs that have prizes inside of them." Aika complained, giving the Riselem crystal that Fina held a wary glance as she kept her distance from the Silvite.

"Riselem is one of the most powerful spells which comes from the silver moon." Fina argued, unswayed by the _ick_ factor of the bauble's creation. "It can fully heal and revive a person or creature who is on the verge of expiring. Besides, as long as we're out and about, the least we could do is help that little girl by feeding her bird. It won't distract us all that much. And relax. I'll hold it."

"Great. Keep the bird spit-ups away from me and we'll do fine."

"Girls, come on." Vyse sighed. Aika had mellowed out a bit after their talk, but the two were still harping on one another for reasons he couldn't fathom. But then, girls were complicated, or so he'd always been told. Waging a secret war against an evil empire while going on a world-spanning treasure hunt was so much easier to wrap his head around. He looked to Drachma for support, but the old man merely rolled his eye and turned in for the pub. Vyse settled for crossing his arms and tapping his foot on the ground a few times to indicate his disappointment. "Can I trust you two to _not_ get into a fight while I'm checking in with the Sailor's Guild?"

"Yeah, fine." Aika rolled her eyes. "I just hope you don't meet that Domingo guy again. He had a lead on the old crossroads signpost before we even knew about it. Getting paid full money for your Discoveries is way more satisfying."

"I think he's pushed on." Vyse said dryly. "Fina, what do you want to do?"

"I thought I'd walk around the island, see if I could find another Cham to feed Cupil with." The Silvite smiled at him. "I got lucky finding one in your father's...place." She qualified, glancing around the crowded pavilion.

"Hm. Suppose I could go looking for Moonfish while we're here as well." Vyse shrugged. Sailor's Island wasn't terribly big, as most of its space was taken up by docking ports rather than actual floating landmass. He turned for the doors of the Sailor's Guild and had almost made it before an excited squeal from Aika derailed his train of thought.

"Vyse, look! The bounty board's updated!"

He frowned and went over, peering in at the newest list. Up at the top with three stars of notoriety was Dyne, the "Blue Storm" as he was known by the Valuan Empire. His escape from his execution no doubt played a part in that ranking.

Not that they'd have much luck finding him. Vyse knew his father. The man could go to ground better than anyone.

"Wow. One-Armed Drachma?" Vyse found the old man's name much further down the list, with a single star next to his name. "I wonder what he did to piss the Valuans off."

"It was his ship we used, remember?" Aika pointed out. "But I'm talking about _this_."

Vyse stared, and there, at the bottom of the list, was a single star and his own name.

**Vyse the Blue Rogue.**

"Wow." He muttered, and slowly looked around himself. It was true that here, on Sailor's Island which was an independent freehold, that didn't mean much of anything. Bounty Hunters were few and far between, but he'd have to be careful. Sometimes, the Valuans paid well even for low-ranked piracy bounties. "I guess I'm moving up in the world."

"I think I liked your dad's name better." Aika preened. "Vyse the Determined."

"Fathers usually think more highly of their sons than other people do." Vyse easily dismissed the notion. "Besides. This could work in our favor. Only the most callous bastards would go after a Blue Rogue. This could keep our sails clear of trouble for a while."

"I suppose…"

"Just be glad they didn't give me a different nickname." Vyse smirked.

"Like Vyse the Unimpressive? No, wait! Vyse the Competent. Sort of a backhanded compliment there."

"Still." Vyse sighed, tracing the paper with his fingertips. "I bust an entire pirate crew out of their execution, escape the Grand Fortress, and make off with Fina to boot, and all I'm worth is one measly star?"

"Next time, we'll take down one of their admirals." Aika promised him with a chuckle. "That would make them think twice."

"It would at that." He nodded, smiling all the more when he caught Fina giggling behind her hand. "All right, everyone. Meet up at the pub in an hour. With any luck, we can get Drachma to foot the bill for lunch, since we helped haul his moonstone ore onto the docks."

They parted ways and Vyse walked into the Sailor's Guild. The man behind the counter was the same fellow who'd recorded his Discovery of the Pirate's Grave, and paid off the bounty for Baltor the Black-Bearded as well. He raised an eyebrow as Vyse approached. "Welcome back, Vyse. Or should I say, Vyse the Blue Rogue?"

"Saw the new Valuan piracy board, did you?"

"Sort of." The man adjusted his glasses. "I was told to deliver something to you if you came by this way again." Vyse raised an eyebrow as the fellow slid a card across the counter towards him. It was blank, save for a large black spot situated in the center of it.

Vyse picked it up and examined it. "What's this?"

"A black spot." The Guild officer answered, quieter than before. "It means that the Angel of Death has singled you out as her next target."

"Who?"

"The Angel of Death." The man shivered. "She's a bounty hunter that goes after pirates. The Valuan most-wanted list gives her every target she could ever want to chase. But nobody knows what she looks like. The only times I've seen her in here, she was in a full-on black cloak, with a hood, and she carried around a wicked looking scythe."

"A scythe." Vyse repeated dubiously. He pocketed the card, tried to fight the rising sense of panic in the back of his mind, and shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. "Well. The next time I see some crazy woman with a farm implement chasing after me, I'll be sure to run the other way then. In the meantime, I've got a new Discovery to report."

The Guild officer leaned forward, immediately excited about the news. "What did you find this time?" It was easy for Vyse to return to his usual cadence and focus on the thrill of things found while sailing to new places.

It beat thinking about the looming death sentence over his head.

* * *

_Early Evening_

They had sold off their supplies, picked up a few more items (Drachma thankfully, _finally_ upgraded his old cannons to something with a little more punch with the money he got from the silver moonstone ore), and then after a small resupply, had sailed due east for the floating barrier of the brown rock reefs. It separated Nasrian held territory from Mid-Ocean, and had long kept the Valuan Armada from making a move into the territory of the Red Moon that did not involve the Danel Straits, the narrow passages between rock and rifts the Nasrian fleet rigorously patrolled. There had been no sign of any Valuan patrols, and Vyse had thought they were clear of the danger.

That had lasted up until they had reached the stone reef and found that there was a ship with blue and white sails standing in their path...and after blocking them once, it then moved to intercept.

Drachma stared at the vessel through an old spyglass, while Vyse gripped the spokes of the pilot wheel. "No cannons on it. Looks like a skiff. Friends of yours, boy?"

"I don't think so." Vyse muttered. He chewed on his lower lip. "I saw your name on the Valuan bounty board at Sailor's Island. Did you have the Valuans after you _before_ you helped us break the Blue Rogues out of prison?"

"Not to your level of notoriety, no." Drachma harrumphed. "But I did spend a lot of time dealing in the black market in West Ocean before. Was the only way to get the weapons I needed to hunt Rhaknam."

"I got a Black Spot today." Vyse cut in, and _that_ made Drachma turn to look at him.

"You've got the Angel of Death after ye, boy?" The old man rumbled. Vyse shrugged. "You're bound and determined to drag me into every bit of trouble you possibly can."

"I didn't _ask_ for a bounty hunter who uses a _scythe_ to chase after me." Vyse slowed the engine to a crawl, then to a full stop once their momentum had slowed. "Come on. If it's really her...We'll need you to back us up."

"You and your girls can't fight her on your own?" Drachma wagered, falling in step behind Vyse as he marched out onto the deck. Aika was already there, confused as the other ship drew near, and Fina had been jogging around the deck before dinner. The both of them saw Vyse and tensed up.

"Trouble?" Aika asked, as Vyse fell in step with them.

Vyse stared up at the blue and white-sailed schooner as it pulled up just above the _Little Jack_, crossing his arms. A rope was thrown over the side, and a young woman in unusual black leggings and a midriff-baring top slid down. A green Ferlith merely hopped over the side and came down for a hard landing beside her. Most telling was the long-handled scythe strapped behind her back, which dangled close to her feathered white and blue hair.

Vyse stared. "You're in our way." He said.

The woman, his age or only a touch older, unstrapped her scythe and stared him down. "You are Vyse, the Blue Rogue?" She questioned.

"Yes." Vyse nodded. He wouldn't lie, even if he could pull it off successfully. "And you are?"

"My name is Piastol. I am a bounty hunter, and I hunt air pirates exclusively." She pointed at him, her face as solemn as a tomb. "The Angel of Death has come for you, Vyse."

Vyse unstrapped his cutlasses, Aika freed her boomerang. Drachma merely took another step forward and adjusted a small toggle on the side of his mechanical arm, which now sported a different and more menacing attachment after their resupply. Fina, the least battle-hardened of them all, whispered to Cupil and brought her small hovering friend into being next to her.

"Sorry. But I've got too much left to do to die here." Vyse replied. The Ferlith beside Piastol growled loudly, and it acted as the signal. They charged at each other, and the battle was joined.

* * *

Piastol proved to be a deadly foe, as versatile with her magic as she was with her unusual blade. Vyse did his best to manage her attention, which wasn't that hard, as he was her target. What aggravated him the most was that both times he managed to get in a good hit, the Ferlith she had brought with her conjured up a healing spell and made the injuries disappear.

"Get the dog!" Vyse snapped, wincing as the leading edge of her scythe sliced through his shirt and scraped along the armored undershirt he'd picked up some time back. Given the sound, she'd thoroughly torn through it.

"Useless." Piastol chuffed, allowing him to backpedal before raising a hand up towards him. "Time to perish." Vyse's eyes went wide as she summoned up her silver magic, trying for a spell meant to incapacitate someone entirely in one blow. At the last moment, it bounced off of him, deflected by a timely throw of Aika's potent Delta Shield. It never lasted for long, but it saved him from being struck dead where he stood.

He glanced over to her, and the redhead gave him the barest nod before turning her attention to the Ferlith. Drachma and Fina had moved their focus to the canine and were steadily wearing it down, with Fina blasting it with one charge after another of Pyri. Now Aika added her own skill to the attack, leaving Vyse alone with Piastol.

"Your pet isn't looking so good." Vyse taunted her. Angered at having her spells constantly thwarted, Piastol took a step back and started to build up a charge in the moonstone core of her scythe. Vyse raised up his swords, preparing to block another one of her furious assaults. As long as he braced for it, he would be hurt, but not down, and the girls could put him back to rights. He was ready for her...

"Neither is yours." Piastol growled, and exploded in movement and light right as his eyes went wide. She wasn't aiming for him.

Aika, distracted by the fight with the Ferlith, only had enough time to turn around before Piastol was on her, slashing like a hurricane. She let out a shriek that was ended far too soon, carried on by Vyse's roar when he closed in on her.

Piastol pulled clear of Aika, who lay slumped on the deck, marred in deep cuts across the whole of her body and too blinded by pain to move. Vyse felt his heart stop as he knelt down beside her, and paid no attention to the final yelp of the bounty hunter's death hound when Drachma finally managed to hit the thing in the skull hard enough to end its life.

Blood poured out of a mortal gash through her throat, leaving Aika gagging on her own blood, unable to breathe, her life fast dwindling.

Vyse gripped her hand, squeezed. "Aika. Aika, come on. Hold on, we'll heal you!" He begged, stumbling in his pocket for a Sacri crystal.

Her eyes turned to glass, her choking stopped, and the rest of her followed. "No!" He howled. "NO!"

In the background, Piastol snarled in triumph. "You take my dog, I take your friend, pirate." Vyse whirled around, his anger at a full boil.

But then Fina stepped in front of him, her eyes hard and glimmering with silver around the edges of her green irises. "Don't fight angry." She warned him. "Aika taught me that."

"But she _killed her!"_

Fina shook her head, pulled her other hand from a small pocket of her dress, and opened it up to reveal a crystal.

The Riselem Crystal that the tiny bird owned by the girl Maria had coughed up earlier that same day. With a shout, she broke it in her hand and then hurled its power towards Aika's body. Brilliant, blinding light made everyone on the deck flinch including Piastol, and when the light cleared, Aika was groaning and pulling herself up in disbelief.

"Impossible." Piastol stared between Fina and Aika. "You just...but she was…"

Fina whirled around on Piastol, and Vyse quickly fell in step beside her, while Drachma helped Aika up to her feet. The Silvite's eyes only glowed brighter.

"You are a dilettante, using magic you _barely comprehend._" Fina hissed, raising a hand above her head. "Your heart only has room for death. But mine?" She let out a sibilant chant in a tongue Vyse couldn't fathom, and every one of them, Aika, Vyse, Drachma, and Fina herself became enfolded by an aura of warm, silvery light.

The fatigue, the aches, the minor injuries he had taken all began to fade away. Vyse looked to Fina, and realized in that moment just how little they knew of this foreign girl, and how terribly they had underestimated her potential. It was not to be found in martial combat, but in magic.

"No!" Piastol shrieked, and rushed towards Fina, intent on the kill.

This time, Vyse met her head-on, bellowing as scythe and swords dueled for supremacy.

She had power, more than Vyse did. But he was revived, constantly renewed so that every blow never had a chance to linger, and she was exhausted after a hard fight. The cuts he took vanished, while more and more piled up along her legs, her arms, her waist, and even her scalp. And finally, it came to an end when Vyse over-channelled his spiritual power through his blades, and sliced clean through the haft of her scythe, leaving a light gash across her ribs before he kicked her away.

Piastol came to a stop ten feet away, breathing shallowly and bleeding onto the deck with her hands wrapped around the broken pieces of her weapon. Vyse stood back, guarding the others as the bounty hunter lurched up to one knee, grimacing.

"How could I lose...to a lowly air pirate?" Piastol demanded between gulps of air.

"We're done." Vyse snapped at her.

"Kill me, then." Piastol rasped back.

"No." Vyse shook his head, stowing his blades. The silvery glow around him finally faded, leaving him unblemished as he folded his arms. "I'm not going to kill you. And like I said, I'm too busy to be dying off yet. Come back in 50 or 60 years, and we'll talk." He brought a hand up and scratched at the scar under his left eye as he looked back to Fina and Aika, smiling in relief. "For now, though, get off my ship."

"This be _my ship, _boy!" Drachma thundered, pausing after throwing the corpse of the dog off of the deck. "I just let you _fly the damn thing!"_ Vyse shrugged good-naturedly and looked back to Piastol, half-expecting the beaten girl to come charging at him. Instead, she was staring at him in surprise...then slowly dawning rage.

"That scar." She uttered.

"Um. Yes, I have a scar."

"I would know that scar anywhere." She rose to her feet and pointed at him with the broken head of her scythe. "And I know _you_, Vyse." Vyse, of course, wondered what she was driving at and cocked his head to the side. "Hear me, air pirate. From now on, I hunt for your head _alone_. The next time we meet…"

"The next time we meet, we're going to kick your ass twice as hard!" Aika shouted from behind Vyse, cutting off the rant. Piastol hissed through her pain again, now dripping with blood from all of the nicks and cuts across her body, and stumbled for the rope.

Vyse watched her climb back up the rope, one painful pull at a time, and couldn't help himself. "You need a hand there?"

Her angry scream as she hauled herself over the railing of her ship was the last thing she uttered before her ship slowly pulled away from them. With the danger passed, the Blue Rogue turned and ran back to Aika and Fina.

The redhead was still in a state of shock, running her hands over her body in disbelief. She looked between her hands and Fina.

"You saved me." Aika finally said. Fina smiled.

"I told you that crystal would come in handy."

Aika looked down at the deck. "We...we're feeding that bird more moonfish."

"I think that's a good idea." Vyse agreed, before turning to Fina. "Where the heck did that come from?"

"Silvites have a unique connection to silver moon magic." Fina explained, with some reluctance. "It commands the power of life and death. I'm not a warrior, but…"

"You were raised to be a priestess." Vyse realized.

Fina blinked. "What's that?"

Aika cut off Vyse by grabbing hold of Fina and pulling her into a tight hug that made the blonde girl squeak from the crushing force. "It means I'm sorry for...for picking on you." The redhead said, agitated and apologetic. "You're not weak. You're stronger than you know."

They all stumbled as the _Little Jack _lurched into motion, and Drachma stuck his head out of the wheelhouse. "You all might want to get inside. We're blasting our way through that stone reef, and there's likely to be plenty of debris that'll strike the deck!"

"Oh, joy. Which means more cleaning and repairs for us." Aika made a face, and Fina giggled at it. Vyse stopped the two girls before they could walk too far ahead of them, grabbing their hands and making them turn in surprise. He could have let things stand, but he was a captain of the Blue Rogues, and he needed to clear the air.

"From now on, we don't fight with each other. We protect each other, because we're family. All right?" He watched Aika carefully after he finished, waiting for some flash of resentment or jealousy to manifest.

But it never did. Instead, she reached out and gently punched Fina in the side of the arm, barely hard enough to muss up the fabric. "Works for me. Fina?"

The blonde nodded, visibly relieved. "I'd like that too."

Vyse grinned, squeezed their hands, and then walked between them, pulling them along behind him.

He missed seeing how both of them blushed as he did.


	7. Bait And Snitch

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Seven: Bait and Snitch**

* * *

Admiral Belleza was unlike any of the others in the Admiralty of Valua, and they had Galcian to thank for that. She had been given command of the Fourth Fleet, but spent little time with it. No, her true power and skill lay in the art of spycraft, espionage, and deception. It was why Galcian had given her the posting; he'd seen her potential, as he had with all of them.

Well, almost all of them. That churlish milksop Alfonso had been a political appointment, and his failures earlier on...and his willingness to lie about it and _kill his own vice admiral_ had led to him finally being demoted and shoved off to Ixa'taka. Perhaps in time, Galcian would find a more suitable replacement for the First Admiral's chair.

For the moment, though, Galcian and the Armada had other concerns; namely, the Silvite girl Fina who had gotten away...and the Blue Rogue named Vyse responsible for the daring rescue. The fact was, aside from the knowledge that Vyse was the son of Dyne, who had since gone to ground, they knew nothing about him, or his accomplices.

But then, that was why Galcian had Belleza. Nobody was better at information gathering and sussing out leads than she was. Galcian had merely pointed her in a good direction to start; if Fina were to inform the pirate about Valua's intentions of claiming the Moon Crystals, it would stand to reason that they would begin the hunt close to home. And since the Yellow Moon Crystal lay beneath the Maw of Tartas, and therefore out of reach…

She'd pointed her ship in the direction of Maramba with a pile of documents and incident reports, and begun the slow, methodical work of learning more about their enemies…

And hatching a plan to crush them, not with a fusillade of cannonfire or the heavy mallet of a military skirmish, but with whispers, shadows, red herrings...And a killing stroke in the night.

* * *

_Admiral Belleza's Flagship_

_Valuan Warship _Lynx

_1 Day After the Grand Fortress Escape_

There came a knock at the door of Belleza's stateroom, and she glanced up away from the intelligence reports, wincing as she felt the start of a lingering pain in her neck. "Enter." She rolled her head around to try and smooth it out as the door opened, and a sailor assigned to the _Lynx's_ galley backed into her quarters with a rolling cart and a tea service.

"Coming up on three bells, Admiral." The sailor said cheerfully. "Lieutenant Alvarez thought you could do with a bit of tea and something to nibble."

Belleza raised an eyebrow, catching sight of some of the galley's fine artisanal biscuits...glazed with chocolate. She didn't bother trying to hide the smile. Of all the exports from Ixa'taka, the cacao bean was her favorite, even though raw moonstones were what the Armada mainly concerned itself with. They had a voracious appetite for the precious energy sources, especially since they had exhausted the bulk of their own. Belleza wondered briefly if the Upper City's obsession with chocolate matched it.

"Did she really say that, sailor?" Belleza pressed, and the young man blushed a little under her praise. Belleza could drip with charm when she felt like it, and while she could play the hard-ass as much as anyone, she much preferred the honey over vinegar approach for the day-to-day tasks of running a ship.

"I believe her exact words, ma'am, were, _'She's probably worked through lunch again without realizing it, so take her an afternoon snack before she passes out on us.'_ Ma'am." The sailor said, going for a touch of formality at the end of the gossip.

Belleza smirked and shook her head. "I see. Well, thank her for me after you leave. I was getting a touch peckish." She rose from her desk, set a paperweight on the stack of documents to hold them down, and then went over. "How is my Vice Admiral doing on the bridge?"

"No problems to report, ma'am. We should reach the stone reef in about an hour, and he is conferring with all stations to prepare for the crossing."

"Good." Belleza turned over the teacup on the service and reached for the teapot. "Have the Vice Admiral inform me when we begin crossing procedures, and tell him I'm not to be disturbed until then. Dismissed."

"Yes, admiral." The sailor came to attention, saluted, and then let himself back out.

Belleza lifted the teacup up and breathed in the faint scent of the spiced orange blend before taking a sip. Hot without being scalding, meant to be enjoyed. Perfect. She raised a hand to her long reddish-brown hair and stroked it back while she stared out of her stateroom's window.

It was coming up on sunset, and the sky was going from blue to a picturesque shade of orange and pinks. Once they crossed the stone reef, they would be fully under the light of the Red Moon. She could already feel how the air was warmer than before.

Having gone over the reports, Belleza had a fairly good idea of the sequence of events leading up to the Blue Rogue Vyse's infiltration of Valua. Accompanied by his fellow Blue Rogue, a red-haired girl of some skill, they had made their way to Sailor's Island and somehow conned a ride on the _Little Jack_, captained by an old sailor named Drachma. He was on Valua's piracy board, but his crimes had been mainly for his dealings in the black market, and only in the North Ocean, so there hadn't been any recent dispatches or notices for his capture.

She owed her spy in that independent port city a bottle or two for _that_ little detail, as it laid bare a glaring oversight in their security apparatus. She'd already made a note to pass that on to Galcian the next time they dispatched a messenger bag.

Thus, when Drachma, Vyse, and his female associate Aika had arrived at the southern border of Valuan airspace with a valid merchant's passport (although one doctored to match their own ship's registry, and that was _another security concern_ to bring up), the border patrol had let them pass through without incident. From there, the ship had docked in the Lower City for 'repairs.' They were likely repairs of a questionable nature, and given Drachma's previous dealings, she would bet good money that the black market was responsible for the Harpoon Cannon which had been installed. She hated how De Loco kept funnelling out his experiments through all channels instead of doing a better job of managing them. It was a dangerous tactic which had finally bitten them in the ass, because the Harpoon Cannon used by the _Little Jack _was anything but the standard model authorized for general production. Her own investigation had been pushed aside so De Loco's men could 'look into it', which was another point of contention between her and the short-statured, short-sighted, short-witted psychopath. He didn't give a damn about the illegality of black market operations, they lined the Armada's pockets. All he cared about was that _someone_ had figured out how to make a better weapon than he had.

Some day, De Loco was going to get himself killed with that attitude. Belleza had a bottle of single-malt Yellowrye in her locked safe for when that day came.

The alliance between Vyse and Drachma was...tenuous, at best. Her agent on Sailor's Island, from what he'd overheard, reported that Vyse had basically blackmailed Drachma into providing transportation to Valua for information on the Harpoon Cannon.

Vyse was powerful, but he was also young. With the aid of Drachma and the _Little Jack_, he'd been able to not only free the other Blue Rogues scheduled for execution, but reclaim Fina right from under Galcian's nose...and then out-fight a standard Valuan frigate, and out-fly the closing gates of the Grand Fortress itself. He was audacity given form, and Belleza had a strong suspicion he relied too heavily on good fortune, surprise, and being underestimated. Those were aggravating qualities, but with enough planning, there were ways to neutralize them.

No, the problem came that Vyse, the Silvite girl, and the female Blue Rogue were not alone in their quest to out-treasure hunt the Valuan armada.

She drained the rest of her teacup, walked back over to the tea service, and set it down before picking up one of the chocolate-coated biscuits. The first bite was sinful rapture, and she chewed slowly, relishing in the flavor.

If she could somehow pull Drachma and his, for its size, impressive little ship away from Vyse and the two girls who were now accompanying him, she could limit his mobility, narrow his opportunities...control his movements. But how to do it?

There were the usual and expected avenues, of course. Brute strength and open shows of force were the trademarks of others in the Armada; Vigoro, for example, the chauvinist pig, always believed in charging in head-on, guns blazing. De Loco would try to make some over-the-top weapon to solve the problem for him. Gregorio…

Well, actually Gregorio, as the most senior (By age) of the Admiralty would likely go for a more balanced approach. But Belleza had her tactics. How best could she divide and conquer?

Her hand was halfway down towards the next biscuit when her devious mind slipped a gear towards a brilliant idea. Belleza lunged for her desk, bringing up the scattered reports on Captain 'One-Armed' Drachma that she had painstakingly collated.

_...Independent agent...Valuan background...former sailor...Motivated by an irrational hatred…_

_**Rhaknam…**_

Belleza didn't bother muffling the sharp little laugh that escaped her lungs. There. There was her opening.

Drachma had no loyalty to Vyse, no particular enmity to the Empire. The Blue Rogue had merely used Drachma, and in turn, been used by him for a period of mutual benefit. There appeared to be only one motivating factor in Drachma's life, and it was potent enough that he'd converted a fishing ship into a vessel built to hunt sky monsters.

Revenge makes a person do crazy things. Of course, Belleza also knew that revenge and singular hatred was like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die, but…

If Drachma was that far-gone into his suicidal quest? She would gladly make use of it to separate him and his dangerous little ship from Vyse.

Belleza returned to her desk, now all smiles, and started to plan it all out.

* * *

_Maramba_

_Nasrian Territory_

_2 Days Later_

The plan was not entirely to her Vice Admiral's satisfaction, but he knew well enough to merely grumble about the plot, nod, and take orders. It was by her mind, genius in its simplicity. With enough of a head start on the Blue Rogues, the _Lynx_ had crossed into Nasrian airspace by clearing the brown stone reef, using its impressive magical cannonfire to blow a hole through it long enough to pass through. While the ship coasted at anchor on the other side of the reef, she had her crew finish outrigging a small, Nasrian-styled 'pleasure ship' that they had confiscated from a wealthy merchant some four years ago when they'd arrested him for arms smuggling. The thing wasn't built to handle rough storms, but it had plush accommodations and a sinfully large bed, and could be handled by a single helmsman...or woman. It came complete with plenty of garments for the various women in his harem back home, not that he'd ever been able to see them again. Afterwards, it was a simple enough matter to darken her skin to a tanned state with an application of magic-activated tanning cream, and Belleza, the dark red-haired, pale-skinned Admiral of Valua disappeared. Dressed in silk leggings and a top that left her midriff bare, with a smile hidden behind a sheer silk veil…

Bellena, the mysterious exotic dancer of Nasrad took her place.

With the rest of her crew waiting back on the _Lynx_, save for a small contingent who had dressed as merchants and come in on a different ship and would work as her ears on the ground, she pulled the small pleasure craft into port and made arrangements with the harbormaster for a two-week docking fee. A few quick movements, some coquettish winks and flirtations, and she had him all but turned into a drooling mess who reduced the price to that of a one-week fee for the promise of sharing a drink with him later. Almost every man she'd ever come across was just like him, and she had learned the game well. Only one man (Who didn't go after other men, she qualified) had ever _not_ been drawn in, and to her frustration, it had to be her superior, the one man she wanted more than anything.

Her very next stop after that was the Sailor's Guild, which shared space with the ship's supply store. Stepping inside, she watched as both the guildmaster behind the counter and the salesman stood up a little straighter, puffed themselves out a bit more, sucked in their guts.

Under the veil, Belleza smirked and put a little extra sway into her hips as she approached the salesman. "Good afternoon." She said, following it with a traditional Nasrian hand gesture of goodwill and blessing between strangers. In her line of work as a spymaster, she knew all too well it was the little details that counted. After one of her underlings had been exposed for making a _Valuan_ hand gesture for ordering drinks in a Nasrad saloon...Well. She had drilled the importance into the rest of her undercover agents rather forcefully.

The salesman's smile was positively blinding. "Welcome, a thousand welcomes, my beautiful dove of the oasis!" He exulted. "What can your humble servant do for you this wonderful day? I have a fine blend of tea in the back, if you would care to quench your thirst? Nasrad Galas, the best under any of the Moons!"

"Perhaps later." Belleza said. "I am Bellena, an exotic dancer from Nasrad here on vacation. However, I require refined moonstone ore for my ship's engine, as I exhausted more than I thought I would in outrunning Rhaknam."

The name of the most feared Arcwhale across the skies chilled the air around them all.

"You saw Rhaknam? Where?" The guildmaster uttered, fearful.

"In a storm that developed along the stone reef, southwest of here." She said, twisting a half-truth into a plausible lie. There _had_ been a significant storm just before their crossing at the stone reef, but Rhaknam hadn't been flying through it. Still, every other ship she'd seen had steered clear of it, so who would be able to call her on the deception? Nobody.

"We'll have to put out warnings." The guildmaster stroked his chin. "My thanks, Lady Bellena." He gave her a short bow, and the musical sound of her laugh broke the somber mood. Let them think she was flattered.

"Do not worry. I can send a man to your ship with the moonstones you require." The salesman said cheerfully, back on his game. "It is a shame you must leave so soon, though. There is a fine tavern which has been looking for new entertainment for its guests, and if you were in need of money to continue your vacation…"

_Give them an excuse to be helpful, and watch them fall over themselves doing it. Works every time._

'Bellena' smiled under her veil and brought a hand up to stroke her ponytail back over her shoulder. "Well. A little extra money would certainly be welcome...but who would come to see a strange dancer in this quaint little town?"

Both of the men in the room raised their hands, bouncing eagerly on the balls of their feet.

She smiled even wider.

Bait. Laid.

* * *

_6 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Outer Maramba_

"_The Oasis" Tavern_

When establishing a double identity and settling in to a new place while waiting for a target, patience was not just a virtue, but an absolute necessity. Vyse and his merry band of interlopers seemed to be keeping to their own schedule, and to make inquiries or let her impatience show would have been unseemly. It would have also spoiled the whole point of the charade. And the charade itself? She would be glad when she was finally done with Maramba. She loved dancing, but she could do without the leering stares from drunken men...and their wandering hands. At least there she could fight back long enough for the bouncers to deal with them, but a hard life on the streets of Valua kept her wary when she left after her shifts.

Doubt slowly began to creep in as the days kept on. Had her wager been wrong? Had the rumors about Rhaknam not been prominent enough? She was used to her plans not ever going off the way she intended them to, but outright failures were another matter entirely. While she had been cooling her heels under a false identity, had Vyse and his partners skipped Maramba entirely?

The sight of him wandering into the tavern with a frustrated grimace on his face was sweet redemption for her nerves and her plans. The redhead and the blond-haired Silvite that followed him was pure gravy…

_And no Drachma to be seen._

They plopped down at the one open table in the tavern, resting on cushions set on the carpeted floor for their use. The three were close enough that Belleza could size them up properly, and even overhear snippets of their conversation. Easy enough to do and still manage some semblance of her routine, even if it did become a little formulaic.

Fina, as the Silvite girl was called, she had only heard of, as she hadn't been brought before the entire Admiralty. The reports listed her as someone weak, but with a thin vein of stubborn loyalty that had enraged the Empress. She still wore the same outfit she had when she'd first been captured, despite how easily identifiable it made her. Sentiment? There was a newness in her gaze as she looked around the tavern, soaking it all in. It made sense; to Fina, the rest of the world was something she was experiencing for the first time. _Driven by sentiment. Terribly naive._

The redhead Blue Rogue had her back to Belleza, but there was no mistaking the depression evident in her slouched shoulders. "What the hell do we do now? Why would Drachma just..._maroon us_ here like he did?" Inside her mind, Belleza crowed triumphantly. So the false rumors of Rhaknam she had planted had done their work after all. The despondency the girl was putting off was at odds with the description of a fiery, no-holds-barred she-demon that had stormed through Valua alongside Vyse. To Belleza, that was confirmation of what she suspected. _Wears her emotions on her sleeve. Absolutely no filter. Easy to read._

And then, there was the infamous Blue Rogue himself. The redhead had been directing her questions to Vyse himself, and Belleza was struck at just how _young_ the air pirate actually was. The Blue Rogue known as Dyne had long been a thorn in the side of the Empire; he was one of the founding members of the Blue Rogue faction, after all. Vyse's parentage explained much of his initial accomplishments. Dyne was widely known as a very capable sailor and officer, a stern but fair leader of men. He had apparently drilled all of his hard-earned lessons into his son.

Vyse sat unbowed by the weight of the world and its problems, but he shouldered them nonetheless. As he'd come in, Belleza had focused on him the longest. He wore his blue coat proudly and made no attempt to hide his identity. He favored short blades, if the scabbards at his waist were any indication, and there was a level of grace and dexterity in his step that betrayed just how steady his balance was. That and his build, toned and muscular without any unnecessary bulk spoke to a duelist's expertise. It was his eyes, however, that were his most striking feature. Even with one kept behind a telescopic goggle lens, he seemed to be perfectly aware of his surroundings, in spite of the troubles that were likely running through his head.

And he was watching _her_, Belleza realized. It caused her a moment of panic before she remembered that she was there to be seen, and she smirked and threw him a wink before diving into her routine with additional fervor. It had the desired effect of drawing his attention in.

She could confirm that Vyse was indeed attracted to the fairer sex, at least. Although, his stare didn't make her skin crawl like the leers of the other patrons had. He seemed more in awe, almost reverent in his regard for the dancer. Belleza had known enough men to tell the difference between a lustful look and a glassy-eyed stare of wonder.

Apparently his partner didn't, because when the redhead caught him staring at her, she all but punched him in the face to get him to stop. And did Vyse sputter and deny it? No. He merely laughed, rubbed the back of the head, and owned up to it, claiming a respect for the customs of foreign lands. The redhead seemed to puff up even more indignantly, and all but turned into a beet when Fina added innocently that there was nothing wrong with the dancer paying more attention to Vyse, because he _was_ rather handsome…

_Well. _Belleza almost laughed at that, but hid her widening grin behind her veil. So. There was something of a romantic rivalry between the two girls for Vyse's affections? That was something she would have to remember for later.

For now, though, they were here…

Belleza finished her routine as 'Bellena', and sauntered down towards their table while Aika continued to argue about it all and throw shade and insults. She _really_ didn't like Vyse looking at other women, apparently.

Belleza decided she would up her feminine wiles a few more degrees.

A girl that bratty needed to be screwed with.

* * *

_The Great Desert_

_West of Maramba_

_Evening_

'Bellena' was more than happy to let Vyse pilot the small pleasure craft out over the desert; there were reports of Black Pirates around, and even the Blue Rogue knew better than to go up against them in a ship without any defenses. Fina had indeed known more about the locations of the Moon Crystals than she had been willing to share with the Valuan authorities, although that knowledge appeared to be horribly outdated. _Apologizing and saying that the world looked different than the maps she'd studied...How inaccurate were the maps of the Silvites?_

Their best guess for the Temple of Pyrynn, which supposedly housed the Red Moon Crystal, was somewhere deep in the heart of the desert, in the shadow of the high mountain range above. Between that, dodging Black Pirates by staying low enough to the ground to avoid being easily spotted, and not being wiped out by sandstorms...Well.

Belleza's estimate of Vyse increased several notches after his piloting performance that day. Still, it had been taxing, so they found themselves dropping anchor behind a small outcropping in the lower part of the ridge, shielding them from immediate view, and also from the more serious gusts of wind.

Belleza had been down in the galley making herself some tea while the three made ready to bed down for the night, and she was glad for once of the small ship's amenities. It was useless in a fight, but given that it had been built for a wealthy (Though corrupt) merchant and his harem, there were plenty of places to sleep. Or _not_ sleep, although she doubted that Vyse was that far along with either of them, given their body language. Aika (She'd finally gotten the name down) and Fina were both 'friendly' and kept their distance, and Aika outright blushed whenever Vyse innocently touched her. Shoulder nudges didn't set her off, at least. Belleza's take on Vyse was someone who outright refused to act on his feelings, putting the mission first. Or maybe she was wrong, and he didn't look at either of them like that. He would hardly be the first man who was blind to the subtle cues that a woman could put off.

It was something that Vyse and Galcian had in common.

When she emerged into the living quarters from the galley belowdecks, she was surprised to see Aika and Fina curled up on opposite sides of a bed large enough to fit six people...and no sign of Vyse. She frowned, took a sip of her tea, and walked over to the door that separated the living quarters from the wheelhouse.

He wasn't there, either, and her concern rose. She'd dispatched a message to her ship through her messengers before they'd set off to have the _Lynx_ stay in the stone reef, close to the desert to await her signal. If Vyse suspected anything, they weren't close enough to be of any help, and they hadn't found the Temple yet. She stormed out onto the foredeck…

And found him kneeling beside a small, formerly locked storage box, now open with its contents of fireworks revealed. Her heart stopped as she drew near and Vyse looked up at her, and her eyes went to the fireworks box. Had he seen the signal flares buried underneath the cache of party supplies?

No. The top layer was undisturbed; he hadn't been rooting through them.

"I wasn't expecting you to be carrying fireworks." Vyse said, slowly rising back up to his feet.

"Couldn't get away without them, I'm afraid." She responded, an easy smile coming to her face. _Don't show any alarm. Keep it casual. Keep it light._ "An exotic dancer in Nasrad must be able to entertain her...guests."

The corner of Vyse's mouth quirked up at that. "I'll take your word for it, Bellena." He closed the box, then snapped the lock shut. "Sorry for the intrusion. It pays to be a little cautious, though. I like you, but…"

"You don't fully trust me." Belleza finished. Her smile was a little more genuine as she crossed her arms. "Given who you are and what you're trying to do, I can't exactly blame you. I still have trouble believing that you were abandoned at port, though."

"Drachma." Vyse said, and his face darkened. Belleza hastily corrected her mental file on the Blue Rogue at that. He was all smiles and cheer most of the time, but there was a depth of fire and rage to him after all. One that only a fool would tap into, at their own peril. "We heard a rumor about Rhaknam when we were in the Sailor's Guild. I knew he could be a gruff bastard, but as soon as he heard that, he walked out while I was concluding my business. When we got out, Aika was screaming at him over the wind as he pulled away. He just left us there."

"Mm." Belleza took another sip of her tea. "He hates that arcwhale more than you hate the Valuans."

"Shouldn't you hate them, too?" Vyse countered, lifting an eyebrow. "After what you told us about losing your father in the war 20 years ago?"

Bellena mustered a weak, uneasy laugh. "I...I suppose that time healed that wound."

"Then you're doing better than Drachma." Vyse muttered. "It _feels_ like he's after revenge, but he never talked about himself. Ah, well. He's not my problem anymore. The fate of the world at stake, and he wants to keep after a living myth. I have bigger things to worry about."

"You should be in bed." Belleza pointed out. She finished off her tea and set the cup down on the lid of the fireworks box. "I mean, your two little friends are. And there's nothing out here to attack us, I've got the repellent incense burning to keep the wild monsters away."

"I'll get there eventually. I put up a hammock down in the engine room."

"The engine room is so small, though!" Belleza protested. "Why not share the bed with Aika and Fina? It's big enough for all four of us, really."

His cheeks pinked at the innocent suggestion, and Belleza pumped her fist at his discomfort. "They're girls." He finally replied, looking off to the side. "It's not...not appropriate. Besides, I've been sleeping in a hammock for a long time. I've kind of gotten used to it."

"Well. If you say so." She sighed, feigning disappointment. "Still, you know you're missing out."

_That_ made him go stiff from head to toe. "What do you mean." He said, his head grinding on his neck as he turned back towards her.

Belleza just looked back at him, trying to fill her expression with as much exasperation and incredulity as she could. "You don't see it, do you? How they look at you? _Both_ of them?"

Vyse shut his eyes, sighed loudly. "I try not to." He admitted. "I won't choose. I won't hurt them, either of them, by choosing."

She felt a hitch in her chest at that admission. "And is it better to say nothing? To just...have the ache and the longing?"

"You tell me, Bellena." Vyse said, turning the conversation on her. "What about the man you love, but who doesn't notice you? Have you ever confessed to him?"

The shot struck harder than it should have, but hurts of the heart always did. "No." She whispered, feeling her eyes burning a bit. Damn this boy. Who was he to bring up these feelings in her?

"Why not?"

"Because, if he…" Her voice caught in her throat and she swallowed it back down.

"If he said no, it would break you." Vyse finished, slowly nodding. "Just thinking about it hurts, doesn't it. So that's why I don't say anything." He pointed a finger at her. "And _you_ aren't going to say anything to them, either."

"I...I swear." She promised, restoring herself. She pushed the hurt and the ache back down, buried it, poured concrete over the tomb of it. "But loneliness isn't a solution."

He laughed a little. "I'm not alone. I have my friends with me."

She stepped towards him, took hold of his hand while she stroked the side of his face. There was still a way to assert authority. _It means nothing. It's just a honey trap. An empty seduction to pump him for information._

Belleza brought the hand of the boy ten years her junior up to her bare stomach, scant inches below her covered breasts. She placed it against her skin, cold and goosepimpled in the night air. His fingers twitched, and the rough calluses of his fingertips just barely stroked her skin.

"You don't have to be alone tonight, Vyse." She breathily sighed, and the burning haze clouded her mind. _It...it means nothing. You don't want this boy. He's not Galcian, he's…_

He wasn't Galcian. Galcian would have taken what she offered with a smirk and no real gratitude or committment. A part of her knew it, but she was attracted to his power, and his unwavering vision of a world at peace under the heel of Valuan authority.

Vyse's neck was like a taut rope as he swallowed, looking into her eyes. The dark and primal lusts finally came to the surface, shading his brown eyes. He almost fell into her embrace. Lesser men always had.

But he closed his eyes, pulled his face away from her hand. Clenched his hand into a fist and withdrew it away from her body, away from the offer of a night's pleasure between a lonely man and woman.

"No." He refused, with no hatred or disgust. "Thank you, but, no. I won't. I won't do that to them."

Belleza tried not to let the disappointment and the lingering ache of her core get the better of her. "You really do care for them, don't you."

"Enough to never betray them." He said, and his eyes burned away the lustful haze for resolute fire. "I hope someday, your man accepts you for the treasure you are, Bellena."

He was ten years younger and more inexperienced, a virgin if his responses were any indication, and completely naive about how the world's injustices actually worked. Yet Belleza still felt shame as she stood there, illogical as it was.

Vyse settled for giving her hand a squeeze and smiling as he brushed past her. "Tomorrow's a big day. You'd better get some shut eye."

Belleza swallowed. "You're going to have trouble getting to sleep tonight. I tend to haunt men's dreams."

"Maybe." Vyse conceded, his voice fading as he kept on walking. "But at least I'll be able to look at myself in the morning." And then he was gone, leaving her alone in the dark.

Admiral Belleza, leader of the 4th Fleet, stood there under the stars and the light of the Red Moon and finished compiling her mental report on Vyse.

Young. Bold. Aware of the weight of authority. Trusting. Beholden to a moral code he claimed was the heart of the Blue Rogues, but seemed to hold additional oaths beyond its simple phrases. Highly observant of the world around him, cautious. Perceptive. A tactical genius at the helm of a ship. Audacious in combat, nearly shy around those he was close to.

No. Vyse was not Galcian, Admiral Belleza decided.

She tried not to dwell on the question that statement engendered...that he might be _better_ than the man she loved.


	8. How Can I Trust You

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Eight: How Can I Trust You**

* * *

_The Central Desert_

_9 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

The _Lynx _lay on the desert sands, a smoking hulk with a massive hole bored through its port side and out through its starboard. Two whole decks were visible through the gash in the superstructure, and Vyse looked at it just to give himself a chance to _not_ stare at Admiral Belleza. His blood was still running hot after that fight, and from the one before it, when they had tried to face down Recumen.

He had stared into the four faces of death that belonged to the Red Gigas, Recumen, and somehow, he was still alive. They all were, in spite of Belleza's master scheme. Their final victory didn't make the sting of betrayal hurt any less.

If he'd lined up the Harpoon Cannon's shot any differently, he could have broken the _Lynx_ to the keel and turned the Valuan warship into two pieces of flaming death and scrap metal. Ordinarily, he would have said that mercy stayed his hand.

Today, though, _necessity_ had spared the life of Belleza and her crew. He felt soft hands slip into both of his as both Aika and Fina hung by his side and squeezed supportively. It calmed him down. They were still alive.

It occurred to him that he might need to add to the Code of the Blue Rogues, for situations like this.

"You're...taking my engine." Belleza said, stunned, a little put out as Drachma walked by them, a massive crate of moonstone fuel slung up onto the shoulder of his prosthetic arm.

"It's only fair." Aika rebuked the older woman. Her red hair was still a little singed from where the blistering heat of Recumen's red ray attack had scorched the side of the _Little Jack_ and burned away the paint. She tossed the Red Moon Crystal that they'd reclaimed from the admiral from hand to hand and shot her a withering look before glancing towards the now offline and immobile form of Recumen, half-buried in the sands already and soon to be gone by tomorrow. "I mean, you _did_ lie to us. Ambush us. Steal the Crystal you were too lazy to go after yourself. Oh...and then using it to _summon a Gigas_ to _attack us with?_" Her eyes were burning at the end, and Vyse allowed himself a small chuckle.

Okay, that cooled his own fire. He had no problems with Aika giving her a lot of flak. Thankfully, she'd stopped short of trying to claw the woman's eyes out. He glanced over to Fina, and was only marginally surprised to see her glaring at Belleza with almost equal fury. The blond-haired Silvite balanced it with exasperation for Aika, though, as she reached out and plucked the pyramid-shaped piece of worked, ultra-refined Moonstone out of the redhead's hands.

"Would you _stop_ playing with that? It's not a toy!" Fina criticized Aika, turning her gaze on Belleza. "And its power is _not_ to be abused. People playing at being gods caused the Rains of Destruction thousands of years ago, and sundered the old world to ruin." She opened her mouth a few more times as if to add to it, but settled for a shake of her head and went back to silence, hugging the Moon Crystal tightly to her stomach.

Vyse allowed his familiar smirk to surface as he addressed Belleza. "Only those who have walked through the desert can truly know its size." He intoned. "Besides, we need that engine more than you do."

"I imagine I know why." Belleza said drily. "I overheard Fina there talking about the 'Green Lands' before you went into the Temple. You're going to try and cross the Southern Ocean." She looked past the three of them to Drachma, giving the old man's back a dirty glare. "Which is why you're also _stealing all our fuel stores."_

"Stealing?" Vyse raised his eyebrows. "Well, I wouldn't call it _that_. And you need to stop calling us air pirates. We're Blue Rogues."

"Why does that matter so much to you?" Belleza asked, exhausted after their fight, but curious.

Aika answered for Vyse, forever his trusted second-in-command. "Because Black Pirates would have killed you all and taken _everything_." She growled out, finally giving full force to the outright murderous anger that she felt for Belleza, and the Valuans.

That he felt.

Belleza mustered a weak, conciliatory smile and nodded once. "I see. Very well. I will not make that mistake again."

"And _because_ we're such nice people, us Blue Rogues, you get to keep all of your food and water from your ship." Vyse told her with forced cheer. "You'll need it to make the trip back to Maramba, whereas _we _will be well on our voyage by the time you're able to send for help and get a message back to your people. Keeps you out of our hair."

"Fair enough." Belleza conceded, throwing her hands up in surrender. "Just keep something in mind, Vyse. For one, nobody has ever crossed the Southern Ocean before. And two? The land you're hoping to reach is called Ixa'taka. The Valuans know about it, and are already there. You're coming in second in a one-man race."

She was trying to get his dander up, Vyse knew. Trying to get him to blurt out something that she could use against them. She was a _witch_, and had been spying on them, using them. Lies and half-truths were her weapons, and they cut deep.

So he took a long moment to compose himself. Scratched at his chin. Yawned to hide a deep breath he took. "Don't tell me that something's impossible." He countered. "It just makes me want to try for it even more. It's a part of being a Blue Rogue, Belleza; Blue Rogues never give up."

"I'll remember that, handsome." She smiled at him, still using the same pet word that she always had, regardless of persona.

Vyse nodded, looked to Aika and Fina. "Keep an eye on them, make sure they leave all their weapons behind when they get their rations out of their hold." He set a hand on Fina's shoulder. "If they try anything, don't hesitate. Stop the threat. All right?"

The Silvite blinked twice, swallowed. Looked at the Moon Crystal in her arms. He could see when she was remembering just how close to death they had come less than an hour ago. Her face darkened, and filled with dreadful determination. And her eyes flashed silver, ever so briefly.

"I will." Fina vowed. Vyse nodded, let them be as he went after Drachma to finish packing up the new and powerful engine that would get them across the Southern Ocean.

That, and that magic cannon the _Lynx_ had used on them. It gave Vyse ideas.

* * *

_Maramba_

_The Following Evening_

With Admiral Belleza and her crew forced to wander out of the desert via the long and painful way of trudging through the shifting sands, the crew of the _Little Jack_ had plenty of time to sail for Maramba, where they could make drydock and see to the business of shoving a warship-rated engine into the back end of a heavily modified fishing boat. There were complications, of course, but after tussling through the traps, monsters, and mechanisms of the Temple of Pyrynn, Vyse and the girls were itching for another fight. Drachma was less so, but his presence and iron tenacity kept them covered when they ended up being cornered by the Larso Gang...which consisted of one tough as nails musclehead and the young son of the former gang leader.

They were still chuckling about it while Aika and Vyse tweaked with their newest piece of gear down in the engine room.

"I still can't believe that all that kid wanted to do was make carpets with his mom." Aika snorted loudly, taking the wrench from Fina, who had elected to be an assistant, as she knew little about current engine design. In fact, she had made several faces already, and once muttered about their engines being 'wasteful' and 'inefficient'. Not that she had any suggestions on how to make them any better; whatever the Silvites used was just too different.

"I thought it was adorable." Fina offered hesitantly. "It was his father who enjoyed that lifestyle. Not everyone has the same goals, after all. Rupee seemed like a very sweet boy. I was glad that you encouraged him, Vyse. He should be able to make some wonderful tapestries when he gets older."

"He even offered us a discount." Vyse finally said, grunting as he finished ratcheting the vibration dampening coils into place around the engine. They'd had to refabricate the entire housing, and the sale of the _Little Jack's_ old engine had just barely covered the sale of the additional parts they had required. Aika had done her best to take every piece of gear she could think of to make the reinstallation easier, but the fact of the matter was they were doing a ship modification that _nobody in their right mind_ would have ever tried.

But then, what was life without a challenge?

"Great." Aika rolled her eyes. "We'll come back in three years and get a discount, if Valua hasn't taken over everything by then."

"People will always need carpets." Vyse suggested with a chuckle. "No matter what flag their ships fly." He stood up and stretched out with a long groan, then cracked his back. "Damn."

Aika looked over at him sympathetically. "With the size of this thing, it's going to be a lot harder for you to stretch out in your hammock. It was crowded in here to begin with, and once we bring back in the moonstone stores…"

"I'll figure something out." Vyse said with a shrug. "Worst case scenario, I'll hang up my hammock in the storeroom."

"Maybe we should spend a little money while we're still here in port. Get you something to make it more comfortable." Aika mused. "A better blanket? An actual pillow, maybe?"

"Ah, I'll be fine." He tried to wave off the suggestion, but Aika got that stubborn, pouty look on her face.

"Look here, mister." She shoved the wrench back into Fina's hands before stabbing him in the chest with her finger as hard as she could. "There's only one reason we got through _any_ of the last few days alive, and it's _you._ So when I tell you that you need to take better care of yourself, I _expect you_ to listen!" The glare came on full force as she leaned in, forcing him to back up until his already abused spine had curved against the inactive moonstone engine. "You got it?!"

"Okay, okay!" He held up his hands in front of him in surrender. "Fine, I'll go buy a damn pillow. Now, could you _please_ check the pressure fittings that connect to the turbine shafts? Before we power this thing on, I want to be damn sure that we're not going to over-torque and cause a blowout. An engine this size, if it lost compression, would blast the ship apart."

"No doi, genius." Aika rolled her eyes. "It's why we had to spend so much on the refit. What, you thought I was going to _re-use_ the old pipe fittings?" She gave him another shove for good measure, then checked the schematic charts they'd lifted from the _Lynx's_ engine room. "2500 Lunnabars, maximum output pressure for these engines. With something that powerful, you need at _minimum_ 1.5 inch pipe rated at B1 Grade, or above." She reached over and tapped the welds and pressure fittings she'd spent the morning working on. "These are Grade-A3. That's Nasrian Fleet grade. And yes, I checked the stock before installing it. No warps, no obvious imperfections. We paid for quality, and that's what we got."

"And the Condensor?"

"Drachma said he got it overhauled in Valua during the Harpoon Cannon installation, so we're good for another six months." Aika paused. "Five months and three weeks. Give or take. Although, depending on how much hard sailing we're looking at getting across the Southern Ocean? Might want to halve that and err on the side of caution."

"Um. So, you've...done a lot of engine repairs, then?" Fina asked cautiously.

Vyse chuckled and decided to give Fina a bit of slack. He slung an arm over Aika's shoulders and turned them to look at Fina.

"Well, being Blue Rogues, we can't exactly dock at most places in Mid-Ocean to make repairs, so we learned to be a little more self-sufficient. Aika here was helping out with repairing the _Albatross_ back when we were 12. She learned how to repurpose a lot of Valuan tech as well, which is why after we get done with this, she's also going to be installing that magic cannon we swiped as well."

"And that, Fina, I expect you to help out with." Aika said. "I...I can do a lot, but you need to make yourself useful around here as well." Vyse caught a little bit of a hitch in her voice and looked over at her. Was she _blushing?_ Sometimes she ran hot and cold, but Aika really needed to learn how to take a compliment.

Fina wasn't discouraged in the least, she just smiled and bowed slightly. "Of course. After everything that's happened, I have accepted that trouble will follow us. I don't think I would be able to learn about your engines, but...I am happy to gain some understanding with your weapons."

"Aika, if you need any more help, let me know." Vyse said, wiping his hands off onto a grease towel. "I need to finish going over our provisions."

"You worried about what that crazy fortune teller lady said?" Aika asked. "I'll admit, she was super cryptic. _Mind the currents, you cannot fight them forever?_ The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means whatever you want it to." Vyse shrugged, giving the two women a wink. "That's the trick to fortune telling."

* * *

_The Southern Edge (Just off the Star Sand Discovery)_

_11 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

The Valuan engine was eventually installed. The trick was tuning its powerful cycles to match up with the _Little Jack's_ maneuvering fins and driveshaft, so that the ship wouldn't shake itself to pieces or shear off. Aika, long a student of converting Valuan ship parts into a workable hash, thrived under the assignment, even earning a bit of rare praise from Drachma and a giggling smile from Fina that made her blush shyly.

She practically glowed when Vyse said she was the best mechanic he knew of, and he didn't miss that, even though he didn't comment on it. He couldn't.

His own head and heart were still too jumbled up to be of any use to anyone beyond the mission. So that was what he did; he stuck to the mission.

They were anchored onto the last solid piece of land that was visible. To the east was a massive sky rift that seemed to stretch on for forever, where it was said that a ghost town called Esparanza resided. Another place he had never been, a place he couldn't go to yet. Behind them to the north lay the mountain ridge that separated the lands of the Red Moon, and to the south…

To the south lay the Southern Ocean, a swath of sky filled with storms and cyclones that seemed to stretch on to eternity. And tomorrow morning, they were sailing into it, with no real idea of how long it would take them to cross it.

Vyse refused to air the notion that they couldn't, that the Southern Ocean of storms was impassable. It went against everything he believed in. But he had one last thing to do before they departed.

The long-simmering font of his anger could not be held back any longer, and there was one member of his team that he hadn't yet decided the fate of.

The fact that they were on his ship? Didn't even factor in.

* * *

There were two cabins on the _Little Jack_, and Drachma, naturally, used the largest one for himself. Aika and Fina had been assigned the other one, each splitting the bunk bed. It meant that in the dead of night, Drachma could be assured of some peace and quiet, and he was dead to the world when Vyse picked the lock on his door and snuck inside. The old man was dead to the world...right up until Vyse scraped the edge of his first cutlass across his whetstone.

The old sailor's eye shot open and he lurched to a half sitting position, his arm coming up to wallop the intruder. He stilled when he caught sight of Vyse, lounging on the locked sea chest and bathed in a moonbeam that shone through the cabin's porthole.

"Boy." Drachma tried to growl out. "What in blazes are ye' doing in…"

"You and I need to _talk_." Vyse snapped back, low enough that his voice wouldn't carry, heated enough that the interruption stopped Drachma's drowsy protests dead in its tracks. He scraped his cutlass across the whetstone again, with practiced movements he'd spent years perfecting. "Now sit up, _captain_."

Vyse could have sworn he saw Drachma shiver for a bit before he did so.

"You left us." Vyse said. He was in no mood to dance around the issue. Drachma, to his credit, kept silent. "You. _Left_. Us. One rumor, _one_, about Rhaknam, and you abandoned me and the girls in a distant port to fend for ourselves. With the Valuans at our backs and out for our blood, and the three of us without any means of securing a ship of our own. You could argue that leaving us in a port city is different than a deserted island, but that's just sugarcoating what you did. You _marooned _us."

"I came back." Drachma muttered, though he couldn't meet Vyse's eyes as he said it. Vyse snarled through his nostrils. The old man couldn't hide his guilt, even from himself.

"You should never have left in the first place." Vyse went on, somehow finding the will to keep his tone of voice even. He wanted to scream and yell, but he didn't. Because his father never had.

Because Blue Rogues didn't.

"Because you _marooned us_ in Maramba, we were forced to rely on the help of a _stranger_. A woman that suckered us in with kind words, the offer of a free ship ride, and who turned out to be the most poisonous viper in that nest of snakes. Because you _abandoned us_, Aika, Fina, and myself had to take on the Temple of Pyrynn on our own. The traps? The monsters? Even a freaking _treasure hunter_ who loved explosives? By the time we got out of there, we were _exhausted_. Because we were exhausted, Admiral Belleza and her forces were able to overpower us. Take the Moon Crystal. Summon that Moons-damned _Gigas_ to kill us before using it to try and take over the world."

"But we stopped it. I saved you all, we stopped it, and we won."

Vyse stopped sharpening his cutlass and hurled it across the room at Drachma's head. The old man yelped and ducked to the side as the blade embedded into the wall with a hard _thwack_, and stared at it. He was worried. Good. Not like Vyse had actually planned on killing him; if he hadn't moved, it would have just come within a few inches of his ear. Vyse lunged forward, and by the time Drachma had recovered, he found Vyse shoving him back against the headboard with his second cutlass wedged uncomfortably into the shoulder joint of his mechanical arm.

The threat was there; move, and Drachma lost the arm he fought with. Drachma didn't move.

"It shouldn't have _come to that!"_ Vyse hissed, and let the thin veil of control slip free. He was angry, and he finally let Drachma see it. The sight of the old man's face going pale was prettier than a portrait. "You should have been there with us. We _should have_ been able to just fly and search for the Temple _ourselves_. If you had been there, if you hadn't _left us_, Belleza, at _best_, would have only been able to try and follow us at a distance! But because of your stupid _vendetta_ for Rhaknam, they almost won today. We were _almost killed_." He bared his teeth. "I. Almost. _Lost them._"

It was the unsteady breathing that must have signaled to Drachma that he could finally speak up. "No apology I give is going to be good enough for you, lad."

"How can I trust you?" Vyse countered heatedly. "You need to give me an answer, Drachma, because right now, I _can't_. Right now, we're in a race to stop Valua from getting the tools they need to take over the world. To stop the _end_ of the world. And there's nobody else helping us. It's me, and Aika, and Fina, and that's it. I thought I could count on you too, until you pulled this bullshit stunt. So give me a reason why I can still trust you, and it had better be the best damn answer you've ever given in your long, miserable life. Because if it isn't good enough, if you can't get me to take you out of the _'liability'_ category you're currently marked in my mind as, then I swear by the Moons, I will do to _you_ what you did to _us_."

Vyse flicked his head towards the porthole. "We found Maroon Isle before we laid anchor. Easiest thing in the world to dump you there with water, bread, and a pistol with a single bullet to shoot yourself in the head with when you decide to end it."

Drachma cocked his head to the side, considering Vyse. There something in how the old man looked at him that seemed to measure him up.

"You would actually do that." Drachma rumbled softly. "And you wouldn't do it because you're angry, no. You wouldn't do it because you're afraid. You'd do it because of them."

"My crew always, _always_ comes first." Vyse said. "When I took the captain's oath before my father, I swore on the Code of the Blue Rogues to look after them. Protect them."

Drachma shut his eye. "You make a better captain than I did then, lad."

"Why? Because of the Code?"

"No. Because your crew's still alive." Drachma muttered, and Vyse blinked. When Drachma opened his eyes again, there was resolution there, a fatigued acceptance.

The fires of vengeance had been banked, in Drachma's eyes, and also in Vyse's heart.

"You've been sailing my ship for days now." Drachma sighed. "You want a reason to keep me around? Here it is. Starting tomorrow...I'll take orders from _you_. You want to lead? I won't stop you. This is your quest, I'm just along for the ride. Where we're headed, we all need to be on the same page. No apology I give will make up for what I did to you three. All I can do is try to never do it again."

"...You actually do regret it." Vyse realized.

"A minute after I left port." Drachma admitted. "I was too much of a coward to come back and apologize, though. Kept arguing with myself the rest of the day and all night, when I saw the _Lynx_ prowling around in the stone reef." The old man pointedly glanced over to the sword pressed up against his shoulder joint. "You mind?"

Vyse finally pulled the cutlass back and yanked his first one out of the wall, backing away from Drachma fast afterwards as the old man rolled his shoulder to test it out. Drachma gave him a look after. "You scurried fast, lad. Forgot you had it there?"

"No." Vyse said. "I just figured you might try to punch me again."

"It's bad form to go punching your captain." Drachma harrumphed, cracking a wry grin. "Just don't be threatening me again, boy."

"Don't give me a reason to."

"Heh. Fine." Drachma rolled his eye. "Just don't be expecting me to give up me bunk. You may be leading, but it's still my ship."

"An old man like you needs all the sleep he can get just to keep up with us." Vyse snorted, as they fell back into taunting banter. "Keep the damn bed." He tucked his cutlasses back into their scabbards and retrieved his whetstone from the floor.

"So. Can you trust me, lad?"

"Depends." Vyse said. "Do you trust me enough to care more about the crew you have now, than the crew you lost to Rhaknam before?"

"Aye." Drachma said, after a pause. "And if we get the chance, if it doesn't interfere with your mission…"

Vyse exhaled, nodded once. "Yes. We'd help you."

Drachma nodded, and slumped back into his bed. "Get some sleep, boy. Tomorrow comes early."

Vyse left Drachma's quarters behind, heading for the storeroom where he'd rehung his hammock. The new engine was loud enough he could hear it through the wall at the same volume the old one had run at.

Tomorrow, they faced the Southern Ocean.

His crew was ready for it.


	9. Sea of Storms

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Nine: Sea of Storms**

* * *

_The Southern Ocean_

_14 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

Sailors who have only patrolled the shipping lanes between Valua, Nasr, and the rest of Mid-Ocean have no idea just how different the Southern Ocean can be. By the third day into their voyage, sailing against strong headwinds, Fina looked absolutely terrible. Not that Aika didn't sympathize; the ongoing storms kept them from going out on the deck most of the time.

_We're only three days sailing into the Southern Ocean. Have we made any headway at all?_

Vyse and Drachma took turns at the helm, and Aika realized that the old man and her partner were actually _getting along._ When did they work _that_ out? Whatever they said to each other while she wasn't looking, it really wasn't any of her business. She was just glad that Drachma wasn't backhanding Vyse like the crazy one-eyed geezer had when they first met up.

There were no landmarks for them to go off of. Once the coastline of the Nasrian lands had faded into the clouds, there was only the sky rift to their starboard and their compass for orientation.

And the winds. The moaning, howling winds. Vyse wasn't one to back down from a challenge, he was stubborn even beyond what the Code called for, but she could tell that he was more than a little cowed by what they were going up against. It was like the entire world was pushing back against them, as the blowing gale from the swirling typhoons they could just make out ahead threw off such strong headwinds that their airspeed was cut in half. Today, though, was especially bad. They were moving at about a quarter of their normal airspeed.

The conditions were bad enough that she moved down to the engine room, investigated the moonstone furnace, then the impellers and the driveshafts. They were all running hot, and she slathered them with extra grease so the metal didn't overheat and cause the engine to seize up and turn itself into slag. She could say one thing about the Valuans; they knew how to make a decent engine. With the rattling and shaking that the _Little Jack_'s suffering, she tried to do most of the maintenance at arm's length, even using a wooden mixing stick to put on the grease. There was a reason she never wore loose clothing. If Fina had come down in that _stupid loose dress of hers_ while she was working on the _active engine_, she would have yelled at the Silvite and forced her to clear out.

Fina never did come down into the engine room, though.

* * *

_16 Days After The Grand Fortress Escape_

In the morning, Aika groaned and rolled out of her bunk, only half-expecting to see Fina still up in the top bed. That had been the pattern when they'd been sailing through Mid-Ocean towards Maramba; Fina slept in, Aika woke with the sun.

Now, though, Fina was like a bundle of nervous energy. Or just nerves. The second morning in their voyage, she'd found the girl running wind sprints up and down the steps at the ungodly hour of five bells. The fourth morning, Fina had been peeling potatoes for a breakfast that never quite got eaten, thanks to a sudden squall that took all of them to ride out safely.

Aika sighed when she found the bunk empty and the bed made. Discipline was good to have on a ship, but Fina took neatness to an almost compulsive level. Like it would kill the blonde to leave her bed unmade _one stinking time._

"All right, Princess, what are you doing _this_ morning?" Aika muttered balefully. She took care of her chamber pot, splashed some water in her face, brushed her hair out and tied it back into her usual pigtails, and got dressed for the day. In all, it only took her about five minutes.

The winds were still blowing away, but there was actual sunlight for once. After a perfunctory search of the lower decks and the wheelhouse, where a less-than-perky Drachma gave her a grunt and reminded her to kick Vyse out of bed if he didn't report for helmsman duty at seven bells, Aika found the only other girl on their tiny little ship out on the foredeck, her pet Cupil slowly hovering around her. The thing was shimmering blue, but Fina wasn't paying it any attention. She just kept staring to the south, to the distant cyclones that spun on in the distance without a care for the four souls trying to sail around them.

"You're up early." Aika ventured carefully. "Again."

"I've slept enough." Fina said, soft as ever. She didn't look back at Aika, and the sense of alarm built up a little higher in the redhead's mind. "How is the engine doing?"

"Holding up, but we'll need to find some place to anchor. In a few days, if we can."

"I'm not sure there's a place like that out here." Fina sighed. "But we'll keep our eyes open."

"Hey." Aika walked up next to her, put a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "Are you all right?"

Fina flinched at her touch, and when she looked over to Aika, the Blue Rogue could see the heavy bags under her eyes, and a twitchiness that Fina had never shown before.

Fina stiffly stepped away from Aika. "I'm fine."

"But…"

"I'm _fine._" Fina repeated, with a touch of heat in her voice.

"Okay. Okay." Aika said, going for a reassuring tone. Something was eating at Fina, she knew that much. But if the girl wanted to keep it to herself, that was her business. Aika hated the people who kept prying at things that they had no right to get involved in. Still, she had to do something to get Fina's mind off of whatever was chewing at her. "So, tell me more about the Green Lands. What did that bitch of an admiral call them? Ixa'taka?"

"The Green Civilization." Fina nodded, and her face seemed a little less gaunt as she drew in a breath and went into 'teaching mode', as Aika liked to think of it. "The Green Moon is associated with growth, renewal, vitality, and healing. The lands beneath it…"

Aika leaned on the railing, giving Fina half of her attention while she considered what challenges they might have to prepare for over the rest of the day.

She'd have to come up with something for the four of them to do that didn't involve maintenance and sailing to improve the morale.

* * *

_Mid-Afternoon_

Aika's first idea was to play games. For lack of a more open spot to play in, and due to always needing _someone_ at the wheel to drive the _Little Jack_ while they continued south, they sat down around the stairs in an odd L formation, with Drachma tending the helm while Vyse sprawled out at an angle to Fina, and Aika sitting on the stairs sidewards in case she needed to run down towards the engine room suddenly. Drachma and Vyse switched off every hand, while Aika and Fina were permanent players in the three-man game of 'Sailor's Hand'.

Fina glanced over the top of her cards, glancing between Vyse and Aika with a scrutinizing stare. She tried to be surreptitious, but Aika still caught her tells. The Silvite was still too distracted and unfocused to manage her nonverbal cues, and she was trying to be sneaky, when she had no reason to be.

"I...I'll take two." Fina finally said, placing two cards facedown and sliding them over towards Aika and the deck. Aika hrrmed and drew two cards off of the deck, tossing them over to her. Vyse sat on his hand, his mouth giving away nothing. His habit of constantly wearing his telescopic goggle, however, allowed Aika to catch the small twitch in his eyebrow.

"I'll keep what I've got." Vyse said. Aika smiled. _Yeah, try and bluff me._

"In that case, I'll take...three." Aika said, and Vyse glanced up to her once. _That's right, I have a pair. Or that's what I want you to think. _She didn't, though; she held onto an ace and a king. And the three she got from the deck…

_Two pairs, deuces and kings._

They weren't playing for stakes, mostly because Fina had nothing to bet with, although Aika wouldn't be surprised if Vyse wasn't also afraid of losing his shirt. This _was_ her preferred game, after all.

"I call." Aika said, glancing to the other two. "Let's see what you've got."

Vyse led off. "One pair." He grunted.

Aika grinned and laid down her own hand. "Two pair. Can you beat that, Fina?"

The Silvite made a face and laid her own cards down. "No." Aika was about to crow in victory until she caught sight of the blonde's hand. No face cards, not a straight…

_But they were all cups._

"...You've got a flush, Fina." Aika ground her teeth together.

"What's that?"

Vyse laughed and slapped his knee. "It's when all of your cards are in the same suit. And yes, it's good. It means you win."

"Beginner's luck." Aika muttered, picking up the cards and shuffling them all back together again.

"Boy, get up here." Drachma snapped out, and the moment of levity was snapped in a heartbeat. "I need another set of eyes, and it's gettin' dark." In a flash, Vyse was up on his feet and racing to the front of the wheelhouse, hissing as he stared out of the window.

"Damn. Another cyclone?"

"Aye. We'll have the devil's time gettin' around this one."

"Yeah. I'm seeing its rotation." Vyse tapped his boot on the decking, then glanced back to Aika. "How's the engine? And our fuel supply?"

"Running warm, and we're burning through our moonstone fuel faster than I thought we were going to." Aika said, already not liking how he phrased the question. When Vyse started asking for details, it meant he was coming up with a crazy idea. The look he sent her made her swear and go running for the engine room to coax it through the ordeal.

His solution was certifiably crazy. Nobody else would have thought to fly _into_ the outer layer of a cyclone and _ride it_ to squeeze off extra momentum before bursting free and coasting further on to the south. They actually made good time for a few hours after that.

Aika was too tired afterwards to do more than bring Vyse a cold sandwich and a drink while the sharp-eyed Blue Rogue kept them flying through the night shift. Fina was already up in her own bunk when she shuffled into their quarters, a lump buried under the blankets.

She was too tired to give more than a moment's notice to her friend.

Too tired to recognize the girl's sniffling for what it actually was.

* * *

_The Southern Ocean_

_19 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

They had pushed the _Little Jack_ hard and fast, but after a week of rotating shifts, harrowing escapes through a field of never-ending cyclones, and constant gale-force winds, they finally sighted a small patch of barren, rocky land at the lower edge of middle sky. It was barely four times as large as their ship itself, but somehow it stubbornly held position in spite of the buffeting winds. With the ship's standard anchors of no real use in the high winds, the Harpoon Cannon was given new purpose; charged only to an eighth of its usual strength, the shot burrowed the spiraling prong far enough into the rock to act as an effective cam anchor without destroying the rocky island outright. They'd eased off on the throttle until the rope's slack was gone and waited for an agonizing five minutes before determining that neither they, nor the stubborn little rock, was going anywhere. Only then, much to Aika's relief, did Drachma and Vyse finally kill the power to the engines, allowing the _Little Jack _to rest. They all slept like the dead, and it was ten bells the next morning before Aika finally dragged herself out from underneath the covers and mustered to the galley.

Drachma was still sleeping, but Vyse was there, peeling loqua fruit and downing brewed tea as fast as he could make it. He seemed barely awake, in spite of the caffeine.

"You look like hell, Vyse." Aika observed, grabbing a mug and stealing his next brewed cup for herself.

"Why, thank you." He said, rolling his eyes at her as she sat down across from him. He was still tired, but a full night's rest, with the relief of knowing that the ship was moored properly had drained a lot of tension out of him. "Got any plans today?"

"Just making sure we didn't burn the engine or the driveshafts out. You know. The usual, making sure we don't die out here." Aika snarked back at him. "You?"

"While we're anchored, I thought I'd go make an examination of the foredeck and the outer parts of the ship. It's a miracle we haven't been blasted by debris, but with as much hidden armor plating as this ship has, I wouldn't put it past this stupid permanent weather pattern to blast us with a lightning bolt or two." He rubbed at his chin. "Not every shudder we felt over the last few days was just from gusting winds, I imagine."

"Oh, joy. Just what I wanted to hear." Aika groaned. "Should I get Fina to check around inside of the _Little Jack_, make sure we haven't picked up any holes?"

"If she's up." Vyse shrugged. The way he nonchalantly shrugged off giving Fina mandatory work rankled Aika.

"If she's up? _If she's up?_" She pushed away from the table and glared at him. "What, like she's special? That she doesn't have to chip in if she doesn't _feel like it?_"

Vyse just stared back at her, not shocked, not really surprised at all. Just chewing away at his breakfast. She opened her mouth to start another rant, but stuttered to a stop when he raised a hand, took a long drink of his tea, and cleared his throat.

"Did you know Fina hasn't been sleeping that much?" Vyse asked her. "I get the feeling that where she comes from, her people don't deal with a lot of storms. So far, the Southern Ocean has been just...one, giant, unending typhoon, with the rain being optional. I hear her at night sometimes. Pacing. Checking on things. Sometimes, I've even gone out and stayed up with her for a bit to try and tire her out enough to sleep after."

Aika gripped the edge of the table hard. Oh, she was fuming. Trying to _tire her out?_ What the _hell_ was Vyse doing to _tire her out_? That...that _hussy_, hiding behind that sweet face of hers, charming Vyse with her act, making him feel like some kind of heroic knight saving the damsel?

"Aika." Vyse sighed. Aika came back to herself, growled.

"What?" She snapped at him. He gave her another one of his patented 'don't look at me like that, you're getting angry for no good reason' expressions. _"What_, Vyse?"

He reached across the table, grabbed hold of her wrist. Surprise made her relax enough for him to tug her around the galley's small table and then pull her fist open, resting his hand in hers.

Vyse squeezed her hand gently. "Something is wrong with her, I can feel it. But she never gives me a straight answer."

"And what, you think she'll tell me?" Aika rolled her eyes.

"Maybe. You've got a lot of heart, Aika. And you wear it out on your sleeve for everyone to see." He stood up, swallowed the last of his breakfast. Before she could react, he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "I've got to get to work. Do what you can for her. Maybe show her how to do some other things around the ship so she can stay busy."

Her face bright red as her forehead tingled, Aika nodded mutely. Vyse smiled at her one last time, then took off to manage his chores.

Aika rubbed at her lips with her fingertips, trying to mirror the warm tingling she felt above her eyes.

_You missed._

* * *

The _Little Jack_'s new engine had been run hard, and it turned out to need a reprieve just as badly as its crew had. Aika had been forced to take some of it apart so she could clean out and re-lubricate the interior components. The driveshafts, thankfully, just took a little more grease before they were back in shape. The issue of Fina, she ignored at the start, and by the time she got through her work, it was completely forgotten. Until she found the Silvite girl working in the lower decks, hanging up wet laundry on a clothesline strung along the hallway. Aika went facefirst into one of Drachma's shirts and squawked in protest.

"Oh, sorry!" Fina's footsteps shuffled over to her, and the garment was pulled away to show the blonde's worried face. "This seemed like the best place to do this. You were down in the engine room, and Captain Drachma would never have allowed it up in the wheelhouse, and the storage…"

"I get it." Aika grumbled, rubbing at her head and ducking under the clothesline. Staring at all the clean laundry just reinforced how grubby her own clothes had gotten, which made her scowl all the more. "I just wasn't expecting it."

Fina fidgeted at that. "I have to do something. I figured that doing laundry was...something useful."

"It never hurts." Aika admitted, letting her scowl slip away. She wanted to stay angry, but right then she was just too tired to build up a full head of steam. And she remembered what Vyse had tried to drive into her head when she'd stolen his tea in the morning. To try and take a chance.

So she quieted her own thoughts and looked at Fina. Really looked at her.

The girl looked so _tired_, for one thing. And she was fidgety, shifting her weight back and forth while her eyes danced around. Looking for..._looking for what?_

"Fina." Aika said, watching and taking notice when the girl nearly jumped out of her skin. The howling of the winds outside was strong and omnipresent, the _Little Jack_ rocked unsteadily in the gale.

And then Aika understood, and felt guilty. She reached a hand out to Fina's elbow. Smiled. She couldn't come at the Silvite directly. "I need to get changed into some clothes that aren't coated in sweat and engine oil. Afterwards, though, do you think you could help me out with something?"

Fina brightened up instantly. "Certainly!" And she actually seemed pleased about it. Pleased to be useful.

Or distracted.

* * *

Much to Aika's relief, a thorough examination of the ship's interior revealed no blast-through damage from the Southern Sea. Given how many repairs they'd had to do after the fight with Admiral Belleza's ship, it was a welcome victory. There was one blown-out porthole in Drachma's cabin, but they had the supplies to board it up on hand, and Fina's pet Cupil showed just how versatile it actually was; the small creature took on the form of a hammer.

It could have done the work itself, but after a bit of teasing from Aika, Fina had knuckled down and started on the hammering herself. Between the two, they had started a steady rhythm of companionable silence.

"This happens often then?" Fina asked, when they were both stopped and going for more nails. "Ship repairs?"

"More than you'd think." Aika admitted with a weak laugh. "There's more to being a Blue Rogue than sticking it to Valua. We do rescues, help out folks who can't help themselves, and you'd be hard pressed to find a Blue Rogue who wasn't a trader or merchant in their off time. So Dyne taught me, and Vyse to a lesser extent, the basics. Survival skills, how to handle minor repairs, search and rescue. Fighting was actually the _last_ thing we ended up learning."

"Really?" Fina was surprised by that, and paused with the next nail pressed up on the boarded window to look at Aika. "But you two are so good at it."

Aika breathed and started pounding on her next nail. _We weren't always_, she thought.

Fina fidgeted for a bit, then started hammering herself, mirroring the redhead's pattern.

"You wanted to ask something." Aika surmised, after their second nails of the round were driven in.

"I wasn't sure if I should. It might not be polite."

_And there's your opening_, Aika told herself. She turned to face the blonde-haired girl.

"Tell you what, Princess." She said to Fina. "You ask me a question, I ask you a question. Fair?"

She could tell that Fina was hesitant about it; the girl still loved to keep her secrets. But the time for secrets was done. They were in the crucible, Man Vs. Nature as the storytellers liked to put it, and there was no time for the distractions of half-truths and doubt.

The Silvite seemed to gird herself up, stood a little straighter, and nodded. "I go first?"

"If you want."

"That...bounty hunter we ran into before we crossed the stone reef into Nasrian airspace. Piastol? The moment she saw the scar on Vyse's face, she seemed to…" Her voice fell off, but came back stronger as Fina's piercing blue eyes met Aika's again. "How did Vyse get that scar?"

Aika laughed softly. An easy question. "He got it saving my life." Fina raised both eyebrows, as if asking for an elaboration. "You want more than that, it's another question."

"I'll risk it."

"In that case...we were ten years old. It was our first real mission with Captain Dyne on the _Albatross_. We'd been sailing, carrying a load of goods to one of the smaller settlements in Mid-Ocean who didn't feel like paying the Valuan import fees for what they needed to survive." Aika set her hammer down and leaned back against the now repaired wall, folding her arms thoughtfully. "The charge we had them pay was less than the Valuan export tax, still a hefty amount, but still affordable."

"I'm still new to money, but it seems ridiculous for Valua to put such a high tax on goods they would ship out."

"Oh, that's easy." Fina snorted. "Before they went full-on mad power grab, they were still expanding their empire, they were just a touch more subtle about it. Why bother sending an armed fleet to demand that an island swear fealty to Valua and join the empire when you can just tax them to death for being a 'foreigner', and get them to beg to join just so they can be free of the export surtax?"

Fina's face darkened as she realized another facet in the depth of Valua's ambitions. "Join us or starve. Was that it?"

"Pretty much." Aika shrugged. "It gets you the weak people...but the _strong ones_ found other ways to get by. So there we were, sailing out, when we came across a Valuan warship that was burning to the keel along our shipping lane, listing heavily and ready to sink into the Deep Sky. Code of the Blue Rogues said we rendered assistance to those who needed it, so...we went. Full mobilization. Which included me and Vyse. When we got on board, though, we didn't see any signs of air combat. No cannonfire damage at all. The decks and the halls were _filled_ with corpses of Valuan soldiers, and we were just about to declare it a lost cause and get off the ship ourselves before we went down with it. Then out of nowhere, this girl in a dress came screaming at us and hurled a dagger right for me. Her aim was scary good. I would have ended up dead if Vyse hadn't reacted, shoved me out of the way at the last second. A fatal blow for me became a glancing blow along the side of his face. She ran off before we could do anything else, and I figure that she died on that ship. My focus was in getting Vyse to our ship's medic."

Fina dug her toe into the decking. "Was the damage that bad?"

"No, not really." Aika admitted. "The medic started to patch it up so it would be a lot thinner, but the stupid idiot got it into his head that he wanted to _keep_ a scar out of the experience. Boys, right?" She rolled her eyes, and Fina giggled. "The jerk was _insufferable_ for a month afterwards. He didn't hold it over my head, no, but he strutted around, proud as a peacock. Kept saying he was a blooded Blue Rogue after that, until he finally worked on his father's last nerve and Dyne threw him into combat training so that would never happen again. We were always friends, his family raised me until I was old enough to take care of myself, but after that, we were inseparable."

Fina smiled as the story came to an end. "He's very brave, isn't he?"

"Brave? Yeah, although there are some days I think he's more crazy than anything else. Still." Aika chuffed. "Now, then. I believe I get two questions out of _you_, Princess."

Fina sucked in a deep breath, preparing herself. "Okay."

She must have thought she was ready. Aika went straight for the incendiary round. "Why can't you sleep?" Fina flinched at it, and Aika knew she'd landed a bullseye.

"I...I don't...I don't want to answer that one."

"We made a deal." Aika growled out. Fina backed away from her, but Aika pushed off the wall and matched her step for step until Fina had backed up against the cabin door, unable to go further. She wasn't going to let Fina worm her way out of this one. "You have to answer it."

Fina shut her eyes, shook her head wildly. Cupil, who had been hovering by the plank in hammer form, changed back to his usual pudgy shape and skimmed over, wrapping himself around her wrist. Fina stroked her transformed pet several times...a nervous habit, Aika realized. She'd caught the girl doing it before.

"I know about bad weather." Fina admitted. "We...I studied it, when I was growing up. But the Silver Civilization didn't have to deal with storms like this. Like the thunderclouds over Valua. It's just so much noise, and shaking, and movement. You're used to it, you and Vyse and Captain Drachma. And I know that as long as you're not worried, I shouldn't be. But I can't help how I _feel_ about it. And at night, when you're all quiet, and it's just me and that _terrible whistling and moaning_, all the time, rattling the _Little Jack_..."

Aika nodded once, stepped back. Gave her room to breathe, because Fina's already pale skin was going paler as she kept talking about it.

"Okay." Aika said, bringing her out of it. "Okay, that, I can work with. Second question. Why? Why are you trying to deal with this yourself?"

"Because it's my problem." Fina said stubbornly. "I promised myself I wouldn't be weak. That I wouldn't be _useless._"

Aika blinked. There was that word again. _Useless._ She had thought Fina was over it by now, but that wasn't the case. There went her jealousy, flying out the window again to be replaced by shame. Moons, what was it about this girl that made her such a mess? She kept trying to hate her for being there, getting in the way of Aika's attempts to win over Vyse, but then Fina would do something or say something that just...cleaned the board off.

"Which is why you keep running around, trying to do things. Because you're trying to distract yourself." Fina flinched at that remark, and Aika gave herself another mental fist-pump. _Two for two._ "But you're not helping yourself, and you're not helping us when you're like this. Okay? You don't have to deal with it on your own. We're your friends. Your shipmates. And you're not useless." She held out a hand to the blonde. "Okay? You have a problem, don't just sit on it. You come to us." Aika paused, then shook her head as her envy flared up again. "No, scratch that. You come to _me._"

Fina's sparkling blue eyes glistened from her earlier outburst. "Why?"

Aika paused for just half a second at that, long enough to keep from snapping out her flip response. _Because I don't trust you around Vyse. _"Vyse and Drachma are plenty busy piloting the ship and keeping us from being blown off course. And besides, it'll save me having to wake up and hearing you whimpering and keeping it all to yourself, _Princess._" She reached over and gently rubbed the top of the girl's head through her silvery headdress.

Fina giggled and pushed her hand off. "Okay, okay. Next time."

"Good." Aika breathed out. Feeling time was over with. She was a lot better at good-natured ribbing.

"Why do you keep calling me Princess, anyways?" Fina pressed on. Aika groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Really? A third question? I don't have another one prepared for you, Fina."

"Then you could...hold onto it, I suppose. For when you do come up with one." The Silvite pressed. "But I'm curious. I told you and Vyse that we don't have nobility, we don't have royalty. But you still keep referring to me by that title. Is it a term of endearment? Are you making fun of me?"

Aika sighed, walked back to the far wall with the boarded up window, and started picking up the ship repair supplies lying by it. "To be honest...probably a little of both." She admitted, wondering right after why she was opening herself up this much. "I mean, there are times that I either want to yell at you or shake you around a little, but then I remember that you saved my life. I was dying, and...and you _brought me back._" She bit her lip at that. _Damnit. _"I told you before that you weren't weak, that you weren't useless. But then you go and do something like this, and I just want to scream because it never seems to stick in that big fact-filled brain of yours. So. No, I don't _hate_ you. You're my friend."

Aika finished packing up the supplies and hoisted them up, tucking the other board they hadn't ended up using under her arm. She turned and looked back at Fina. "But even friends can get irritated with one another."She let off a predatory smile. "Just ask Vyse how many times I've kicked his ass."

Fina giggled again at that, the tense moment passed. They both started to breathe again. "Okay." The Silvite bowed slightly. "Apology accepted."

Aika's cheeks puffed out indignantly. "I didn't...Hey, that wasn't an apology!" Fina just laughed, and Aika groaned as the other girl opened up the cabin door for her.

"Come on." Aika said to her friend. "Let's put this stuff away, and then how about I show you how to cook a _proper_ meal?"

* * *

_The Southern Ocean_

_31 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

In all, it took them nearly three weeks to brave the first leg of the voyage to Ixa'taka. Eventually, though, the stormclouds faded. The sea of typhoons slipped behind them, and with cold air coming off of the sky rift to their south, the _Little Jack_ turned east into an entirely different ordeal. If they had thought the winds had been terrible before, they had sorely misjudged the strength of them. The typhoons had been fed by the powerful currents flowing from the west, and had actually worked as a buffer. Now, though, they were screaming down the length of a natural wind tunnel, and the ship struggled for every nautical mile. At least they could see where they were going; the moons battled for supremacy at night, with the purple moon, the silver moon, and the green moon all standing at various azimuths, but never with one of them dominant over the other. To the relief of Aika, who had continued to maintain the engine, this stretch of the Southern Ocean was dotted with far more floating patches of land, all of them worn down by the wind, sharpened and jagged with little natural growth. There were places to fire the Harpoon Cannon and anchor for much needed rest and repairs, but the leeward side of the stones were also home to some very disobliging creatures as well. Green Loopers and worse things besides became a perennial pain, and the four of them found themselves doing battle on the foredeck to protect their ship from the patches of monsters that came after the new presence. But after they were scared off and away, it became safe enough for them to try for some shut eye and take a tally of their progress.

The four of them stood around the charting wall in the wheelhouse, with Vyse sticking up a map he had been meticulously filling in over the whole of their voyage, including landmarks, distance, and dangers.

"We've turned a corner. Figuratively and literally." Vyse started out. "I think we've entered into an entirely different zone of the Southern Ocean, although we have no idea how far it goes on for. Still, monster battles aside, the greater density of floating rock formations means that we can make more frequent stops...and there's more wind and fewer tempests." He glanced over to Aika. "How's our fuel supply looking?"

"Not as good as I'd like." Aika muttered, pulling up her own notebook. "We've been sailing for three weeks and so far we've gone through about 45 percent of our moonstone stores...that includes what we took off of Belleza's ship as well. The fact is, based on yesterday and today's readings, we'll be consuming our fuel at one and a half times the rate we were before. The winds here are just too intense. With no idea of just how far this stretch of the journey is going to take, we're going to need to figure out a way to sail smarter and reduce the load on the engine."

"I know what's causing it, at least." Fina suggested. She was as pale as ever, though she was holding up. "The Lands of Ice are likely south of us, and the cold air is racing out and joining up with the warmer tropical currents coming off of the Green Lands. It's the combination of the two that's been making the weather this terrible." She ducked her head. "Although I had no idea it would be this bad."

Drachma stroked at his chin thoughtfully, the more seasoned sailor quickly searching for a solution. "Drafting." He finally announced.

"Come again?" Aika blinked at his suggestion, caught off guard by the unfamiliar word.

"It's something that birds and schools of skyfish do." Drachma explained. "They fall in line behind a leader; the foremost creature takes on the brunt of the wind resistance, and partially shields those behind it. When it tires, it falls back and another one in the flight moves forward to take the lead position. It's how they conserve energy when flying into headwinds. I think we could manage something similar ourselves."

Aika watched as the gears in Vyse's head began spinning, and he fell upon Drachma's meaning with his usual flash of intuitive genius. The Blue Rogue laughed and slapped his knee. "Right! We'll just draft behind all the islands in the current! We'll island hop our way to Ixa'taka! Brilliant idea, Drachma."

Aika leaned over and nudged Fina in her side. "See? Old people _can_ have good ideas every now and then."

"Oi!" Drachma barked out, as the two girls laughed at him. "All right, fine. Meeting's adjourned with that, I'm thinking." The old sailor patted Vyse on the shoulder and headed down the steps. "Fina! I could be usin' a hand with the cooking." Fina meeped in surprise and quickly started following his footsteps.

That left Aika alone with Vyse for a rare opportunity when there was nothing going on, and she ended up smirking a little. Of course Vyse went and ruined the chance by being all noble. He sighed loudly and looked at her. "How's Fina doing?"

"Hanging in there." The redhead told him. "I'm hoping that she'll be able to turn it around some, now that we're out of Typhoon Alley."

"Typhoon Alley?" His eyebrow quirked up a little. "Is that what we're calling it?"

"What, you had a better name for it?" She challenged him, cocking a fist at her waist.

"Maybe!" He said, but wilted when she kept staring at him. "Okay, no, I didn't have a better name for it."

Aika let out a little noise of victory and leaned in towards him. The hell with it, she was going to go for it. Going for her most sultry expression, she reached a hand up and ran her fingers through his hair above his right ear. "See? You really ought to listen to me more. I'm just full of..._good ideas."_ The last part she whispered into his ear as she came in even closer, catching the smell of the hard soap he used to wash with.

Vyse shivered at her proximity, and stepped back away from her. "And terrible ones." He deflected with a nervous laugh, rubbing a hand through his hair to muss it up the way he liked it. "You thought that we would burn to death out on the open desert by Maramba, but that didn't happen."

Disappointed, Aika lowered her arm and turned around, not really staring at the chart hanging there. "Vyse, you're such an idiot sometimes." She whispered.

"Eh? Did you say something, Aika?" Vyse quickly asked, confused.

She brushed a fingertip over her eyes once, then shook her head. "Nothing, Vyse. Just...talking to myself."

"Well, enough woolgathering. I think we've got enough time before dinner to get some combat practice in." Vyse happily changed the subject. "Want to duel with me, for old time's sake?"

She did, of course, though not without some regrets. He really was clueless.

* * *

_35 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

It was the dead of night, the _Little Jack_ was clamped down two islands past the Sky Anenome they'd discovered, and the winds continued to howl away. It made getting to sleep an interesting proposition, but Aika had enough practice by now to gut through it.

At least, she would have, if it hadn't been for another noise.

Fina was whimpering again. Aika put up with it for about two minutes, then groaned and kicked her foot into the bottom of the upper bunk, jarring her roommate.

"Fina. You okay?" She got no response from the other girl, and so she flung the blanket back and pushed herself up and out of bed. Aika stood up and looked at Fina, curled in around herself with Cupil wrapped around her head in the form of a pair of earmuffs. It had been an idea Aika had come up with a few nights back, when Fina said that the noises were still getting to her.

As Aika's hand gently rocked her shoulder, Fina's eyes snapped open. The Cupil earmuffs pulled back a little ways.

"They're not helping?" Aika asked wearily. Fina's eyes misted up as she shook her head.

"I can still feel it." The blonde-haired girl whispered. "The ship, shaking. The wind, blowing us around. Like we're going to be torn apart." The tears came faster now. "I'm going mad, Aika. I just...I want it to be over. Please."

"You know that's impossible." Aika pointed out. "We've probably got weeks ahead of us yet."

Fina clamped her eyes shut at that. "Then...you have medicines, right? Could you just, give me something? Something so that I could sleep through all of this?"

Aika drew in a breath at that. They had painkillers, of course, but her training only allowed for their use in critical situations. Using them to put someone into a dreamless sleep…

"I can't do that, Fina." She told the Silvite carefully. "I won't do that to you, I'm not going to turn you into an addict."

"And this is _better?_" Fina sobbed, dragging her fingernails across her face. Aika hissed in shock; she was digging into her skin hard enough to leave trails of red. Maybe even draw blood if she kept it up.

Aika's resolve crumbled at that. She let out a sigh and climbed up the side of the bunk. "Scoot over."

"Wuh...what?"

"Scoot. Over." Aika repeated, making it an order. She was tired, and cranky, and just wanted to _sleep_. And Fina needed rest just as badly. So, there was only one way she could make it work.

Fina made room in the small bunk, and Aika slipped in behind her, pulling the blanket over them. She pulled the girl back against her chest, and Fina squeaked from the pressure of Aika's hand against her stomach.

"Don't think about the ship's vibrations." Aika yawned. "Can you feel my heart beating? Against your back?"

"Um...yes." Fina whispered. She had been shaking at first but was now as stiff as a rail, while Aika's toned frame and arms fairly melted around the curvier girl.

"Put your Cupil earmuffs back on, close your eyes, and just feel my heartbeat." Aika said, already dozing off again. The bed was warm from Fina's body heat, and with her nose pressed up against the back of Fina's head, she could pick up the faintest scent of some flower; a remnant of the headdress she wore during the day. "And get some sleep already. I'm tired."

"I'll try." Fina stammered out, and Cupil slipped back over her head again. She must have been more panicked than Aika had originally thought, because Aika could feel her thundering heartbeat through her hand, resting against Fina's soft stomach.

Eventually, though, Fina finally did calm down. What little shaking she had left stopped. Her pulse evened out. Her breathing deepened.

Half asleep herself, Aika quirked her mouth up into a smile. _Thank the Moons._

For a change, they both slept without incident. And Fina's smile seemed a little brighter and a little less forced the next day.

* * *

_40 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

"It seems like Fina's doing a lot better." Vyse said, one day while he and Aika were getting lunch ready. "She doesn't seem as tired as she used to be, and she's really picking up the slack around here."

"Laundry _is _important." Aika chuckled. "If she keeps it up, she might actually turn out to be a better crewmate than _you_, Vyse."

"Ow. I might need some ointment after that burn." The Blue Rogue said, wincing with a wink. "But seriously. What changed? What did you end up doing to help her?"

"Well…" Aika started, making a face. "You were right. About the weather. She's never had to deal with storms like this. And if you and I find this whole trip daunting, it's been a nightmare for her. But we figured out a way to help her get through the night."

"Oh? What's what?"

Aika paused, considering how best to phrase her answer. "Did you know Cupil can transform into things besides weapons? He's been turning into earmuffs for her."

"Wow."

"I know, right? And when that isn't enough, I just stay up and talk with her until she wears herself out."

"Incredible." Vyse chuckled. "Who knew you could be such a good caretaker?"

She shoved him in the shoulder. "Better me handling it than you."

"What, you don't think I could help her out with her problem?"

"You asked me to do it." Aika pointed out sharply. "And if anything, I'm afraid that you'd help her out too much."

He blinked a few times at that, leaned back away from her. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Her face burning, Aika looked away from him. "Nothing."

She felt his hand come to rest on her shoulder. "Sure didn't sound like nothing." He muttered.

Aika pulled away from him, moved over to the stove and started a pot of water boiling. "It's my problem. I'll deal with it."

* * *

_45 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

It reached a point that Fina no longer needed to use Cupil to dampen the sound of the howling winds outside of the _Little Jack_, but that didn't mean she was any calmer about it. She just took to other methods of distracting herself, and for a spell, she tried inane chatter.

"Aika?" Came her trembling voice, early one evening.

From the bunk below Fina's, Aika let out a sigh and rolled onto her back, staring up at the wood of the top bunk. "What, Fina?"

"Um." Shuffling noises. "Are you awake?"

"For Moon's sake." Aika grunted. She didn't move, though. "I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

A weak giggle. "I suppose."

"What do you _want_, Princess?"

"I was...wondering about you. And Vyse. Um. That is." Aika's hands clenched around her blanket. "He...he looks at you. A lot. Especially when you're distracted."

Aika shut her eyes. "I don't want to talk about this."

"I know, I know it's probably uncomfortable. It's just…" A pause, then Fina sighed. A heavier _fwump_ from above, like she was punching a pillow. Or squeezing Cupil. One sounded pretty much like the other. "The other day, he was smiling at me. He watches you, and he smiles at me."

"Terrific." Aika bit the word out. "Send me a wedding invitation."

"A what?" The blonde's puzzled voice floated down to her.

Aika groaned and rolled onto her side, facing the wall. "I _really_ don't want to talk about this."

"But I can't sleep."

So Aika, her heart rattled, threw off the covers from her bunk and climbed up into Fina's small bed. It was a sign of just how familiar the practice had become that Fina didn't argue, or blush. She just scooted over and made room as Aika lay down behind her, and then pulled her in tightly.

"Just...shut up." Aika mumbled. She knew she was crying. She figured if she didn't say anything, that Fina wouldn't be able to notice.

And yet, a minute later, the girl still reached a hand back over her shoulder, tracing the side of Aika's cheek where her tears had been slipping down and soaking into the fabric of Fina's gown.

"I'm sorry." Fina whispered. "I didn't..."

Aika sniffed once. "Go to sleep, Fina."

"But…"

Aika pressed her head into the back of the other girl's neck. "_Enough."_

And this time, Fina finally took the hint.

* * *

_48 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

Even though Vyse and Drachma had made drafting behind the various islands in the Southern Ocean an art form, it didn't mean that there weren't close calls. They had come to build up an assumption that every island that they came across _stayed put_, had enough mass and raw moonstone ore buried deep inside of it to keep it locked in the current like an anchor, even as they were weathered away.

One close encounter with a rotating, diamond-shaped remnant of an island that they had named 'Comma Rock' sobered them up in a hurry, and re-established an old paradigm that Drachma voiced after they'd fired the Harpoon Cannon to anchor to another island for the night.

"And _that_, lad, is why you never take anything for granted when you're sailing." The old man chuffed, throwing back his third shot of Valuan rye whiskey.

"Yeah, yeah." Vyse stayed away from the harder stuff, sticking to the watered down ale that Aika had poured for him. Aika lifted up her own mug of the diluted alcohol and glanced over to Fina, who was delicately sipping at her own, but making faces every time she did so. "We'll make a heck of a lot of money once we're able to tell folks about it, though."

"Ha!" Drachma poured himself another shot. Aika raised an eyebrow; the old man really _was_ rattled, the way he was drinking like a fish. "And you say you're not a Pirate."

"We're not!" Vyse said. "Blue Rogues are...we're different!"

"Aye, your Code." Drachma chuckled. "Relax, boy. You'll be gettin' no grief about it from me. I've known about Blue Rogues since they first got started up. I'm just obliged to give you a little grief every now and then, is all."

"So you say." Vyse muttered. "Aika said the engine was still holding up all right. The drafting seems to be working." He glanced out the doorway of the galley, towards the stairs that went up. "The maps I've been charting will be worth a lot more, I'm thinking."

"They may just be. Although, lad, you'll have to ask yourself if it's worth anybody's time to come at the Green Lands the long way around, especially if Belleza wasn't feedin' us a pack of lies about Valua already bein' there." Drachma capped off the bottle of rye and set it back behind the serving counter, locking it into place. "Well. That'll do it for me. You three finish cleaning up. I'll fly the first shift tomorrow. Aika, I'll come help ye look the engine over in the morning before we head out."

"All right, captain." Aika waved him off. "See you then."

In the absence of the old man, the small talk gravitated towards the usual safe topics between the three. Aika put out her wild guesses about what Ixa'taka might be like, Fina asked about details of the world which still confused her, and Vyse got that starry-eyed look of his, dreaming about seeing things that nobody else had. Then they played an old board game that Drachma somehow had stashed aboard. It was a children's game, but Fina got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Aika wondered briefly why Drachma would keep something so silly and frivolous around when so much of his ship was based solely on utility and little in the way of creature comforts, but she kept forgetting to bring it up with him. Somehow, it was never important enough to remember.

They said their good nights, and Aika and Fina trudged into their room, starting the process of changing for a night's rest.

That was when things got awkward. Aika could tell that Fina hadn't forgotten their abruptly ended talk some nights prior, but the other girl had, to her credit, never started it up again. Of course, that might have had something to do with Aika threatening to just let the girl suffer through sleepless nights alone again. It still was a little irritating that she could be so hopelessly dependent.

"I can't believe that you don't know anything about what we're flying into." Aika pointed out. "Just what rock have your people been hiding under for so long?"

Fina removed her headdress, and her shoes. It gave her time to think, Aika realized. "The leaders of our people, the Council of Elders? I learned during my education that they chose to live separate from the rest of the world."

Aika finished unlacing her boots and kicked them off. They flopped to the ground with much less grace than Fina had used. She reached for her hair ties next. "Why?"

"The Silver Civilization got tired of all the warfare between the other civilizations, back when the Gigas roamed Arcadia. So, we left them all behind, and hid away." Fina gave Aika a sad smile at that. "It was that decision which probably saved my people when the Rains of Destruction came down. After that, there wasn't enough of the Old World left behind, so the Silvite people just stayed away."

"And watched." Aika pointed out, undoing the last hair tie. The tangled mass of her shoulder length red hair came down in a bunched up mess. She made a face and reached for a comb. "What caused the Rains of Destruction anyways?"

"Legend says that it was a divine punishment from the Moons." Fina intoned solemnly. "That humanity was judged and found wanting, and that the Moons sent down a torrent to wash it all away. One thing that we did know for certain was that the Moon Crystals were developed, and used, by every Civilization to power their ancient war beasts, the Gigas. The rise of the Gigas immediately preceded the Rains of Destruction. Thus, if we can retrieve the Moon Crystals and lock them away where the Valuans can never reach them? Then we will be able to prevent the Rains from happening a second time."

"And that's exactly what we're going to do, Fina." Aika said, sitting down on the edge of her bunk and starting the process of brushing it out.

Fina came over and sat beside her. "Let me help you with that."

"You'd brush out my hair?" Aika blinked in surprise.

"You've been holding me every night so I can sleep through this terrible voyage." Fina pointed out, extending her hand. "I feel like I should do something to make it up to you."

Aika gave it about two seconds' worth of consideration before she nodded and handed the brush over, then turned and sat on the bed so Fina could get at it more fully.

The Silvite combed slowly at first, cautiously, then over time gained speed and confidence in her brush strokes. Aika found her eyelids fluttering shut.

"This is nice." She yawned, a minute later. "Nobody's brushed my hair out for me since I was a little girl."

"Your mother?"

"No. Vyse's mother." Aika murmured. "I don't remember my mother ever brushing my hair out much. I don't remember her all that well. I guess we have that in common."

"It always felt wonderful when my hair was brushed." Fina said.

"Who brushed your hair out, if you didn't know your parents?"

There was a momentary pause in the brush strokes. "A friend of mine. But he's gone now."

Aside from a soft goodnight as the two separated and got into their own bunks, those were the last words they said to each other that night. But something kept Aika from slipping into sleep completely.

Two hours later, when Aika heard Fina begin to whimper as the winds picked up, she crawled up into the blonde's bed and held her close, like she always did. And then they both slept.

* * *

_61 Days after the Grand Fortress Escape_

They noticed a change in the current of the Southern Ocean during the seventh week of their voyage. The air became less chilly and more humid, and the intensity started to die down a little. After clearing Beak Rock, as Vyse named one decorously shaped island formation, the islands dissipated as well. It meant less overall wind resistance for them to fly against, but without the aid of the drafting techniques that they had been using for weeks, the beginning of more solid days and nights of sailing. This time, they were ready for it though. Drachma took the night shift, Vyse flew in the day, and Aika and Fina managed the maintenance of the _Little Jack_, making the meals, cleaning clothes and everything else that had to be done.

Aika felt like her unspoken bond of deeper friendship with Vyse had hit a wall. She kept hinting at wanting something more, and he either acted clueless, or pulled away from her. In everything else, he was flawless. Direct and confident at the helm of the ship, or in charting their course, and in combat. Drachma...well. The old man never changed. Maybe that was why she liked him so much. When he wasn't offering suggestions couched as orders, or hoisting up sailing advice for how to endure long voyages, he pretty much kept to himself.

Fina, on the other hand…

"Aika?" The Silvite said from behind Aika, as she and the redhead were tallying their moonstone fuel supply one afternoon.

"Hm? What is it, Fina?" Aika asked, her mind more focused on the tallies. She was frowning at the numbers. "We'd better find land soon. At our current rate of consumption, we've got about another week and a half...two weeks at the most, before we exhaust our moonstone fuel supply."

"We will." Fina said confidently. "The winds have changed. You've felt how humid it's become? And how the skies are grayer, more full of rain?"

"Um. Sure?" Aika finally glanced up from her clipboard and frowned. "Is that a good sign?"

"It means we're coming under the control of the lands of the Green Moon, which is governed by growth and healing. The lands here have always been fertile. The cold winds from the south are gone."

"Something you should tell Vyse tomorrow then. I don't suppose you have a more accurate prediction for our arrival?"

Fina shook her head. "Sorry, but no. What I studied is…"

"Out of date." Aika waved off the apology. "Yeah, I know."

Fina nodded once, and bit her lip. "Um. There was something else, too."

"What?"

"With the winds dying down...I think I'm beginning to relax a little bit more."

"Oh?" Aika tilted her head a little. "That's a good thing, right? I mean, you've pretty much been a nervous wreck. Now things can get back to normal!"

"Normal?" Fina brushed a hand along the side of her head, pushing the edge of her veiled headdress back. "Right. Normal." She frowned a bit. "I...I wanted to thank you." Aika blinked, and Fina eventually elaborated. "For weeks now, you've been...keeping an eye on me. Helping me through this. It might have been an irrational fear, but you got me through it."

"Oh." Aika blinked several times more. "Well. You're welcome. I mean, what was I going to do? _Not_ help you? You're a member of this crew."

"So, crewmembers sleep next to other crewmembers and let them focus on their heartbeat so they'll stop thinking about how the winds are threatening to tear their ship apart?" Fina asked with wide eyes.

Aika blushed a little. "No, a cremember wouldn't. But a friend would."

And Fina smiled. "I'm glad that we're friends."

Aika snorted a little, a little awkward at the strange situation. She bumped Fina's hip with her own and smirked. "Maybe not as good a friend as Cupil, though. I've seen how you squeeze him half to death sometimes."

"Why wouldn't I?" Fina pouted a bit as she righted herself. "Cupil can be a very cuddly pet."

"And a sword. And a cone projectile. And earmuffs, and apparently a body pillow…" Aika pointed out, ticking off her fingers. They stared at one another and then fell into laughter.

Fina wiped at her eyes when she was done. "Still. Thank you. You're a very warm person, Aika."

"I'm going to remember you said that, the next time you complain about me training you too hard." Aika chuckled.

The next day, there were leaves in the wind. They slapped against the wheelhouse windows, a promise of land beyond the haze of rainclouds.

* * *

_The Green Lands of Ixa'taka_

_66 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

Nearly two months of hard sailing had left the _Little Jack_ in desperate need of a complete drydock and servicing overhaul. Their moonstone stores were down to the dregs, and their food supply was...well. Questionable. Vyse had made a joke as they fixed a meal of old and wormy bread about 'the lesser of two weevils', which Aika had promptly smacked him upside the head for.

To their relief, Ixa'taka was less of what Aika had fever-dreamed, and more what Fina had portrayed; a land of endless forests and peerless bounty. They had anchored the _Little Jack_ next to a floating island...staying well clear of a Valuan patrol ship that lingered around a tall, dome-like mountain in the southern portion of the landscape. Hiding on the other side of that land, they waited for daylight to continue exploring the unfamiliar landscape, and feasted on the hanging fresh fruits of the island they were docked with.

And at night, when _everyone_ finally settled into bed? There was no bucking and rattling of the hull, no whistling, piercing moaning of the wind. Just a gentle rain. Aika hit her pillow with a full stomach of sweet, ripe melonfruits, relieved that for once, she wouldn't have to wake up halfway through the night to crawl into bed with Fina to keep the other girl from going into a nervous breakdown. She could just sleep.

But she didn't. The bed didn't feel right, so she shifted around a little. It was too quiet, so she cracked the window open to hear the sound of the raindrops falling against the side of the hull. She fluffed her pillow, tried sleeping on her other side.

Nothing she did felt right, and over an exhausting, frustrating hour of it, Aika finally realized what was wrong.

She was sleeping _alone_. When she'd been sleeping next to Fina, holding Fina, for _weeks._

The realization made her groan.

And then she felt movement above her. The bunk rattled, and Aika turned to look in at the cabin in time to see Fina climbing down.

"Fina, what…?" Aika started, struck by how the green moonlight wafting through the sporadic stormclouds caught the other girl's soft blue eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Scoot over." Fina whispered back to her. Aika blinked twice, and her arm moved on its own, pulling her blanket back. Without ceremony, Fina crawled into the small bunk next to her, and lay there facing Aika, their faces inches apart as the two girls breathed in and out. Aika wondered, and Fina just stared at her. Then she finally leaned over and kissed Aika's forehead. "Turn around."

Aika swallowed hard, felt her heart beating wildly for a reason she couldn't put words to. But she did as she was told.

Fina pulled the blanket back over them, then scooted in until Aika felt the other girl's more rounded, curvier breasts press in against her back. The redhead's breathing hitched when Fina's arms wrapped around her stomach, mirroring the pose that Aika had always used to hold her during the long nights in the Southern Ocean.

"My bed didn't feel right." Fina mumbled, her face wafting through Aika's tresses.

Aika swallowed again, tried to speak. Coughed. Felt her face burn as bright as her hair. "This doesn't mean anything, Princess. I just couldn't sleep."

Fina, once again revealing another facet of her puzzling personality and education, chuckled throatily as her face pressed in against the back of Aika's neck and hair. "Good night, Aika."

It was too much to think about, to much to feel. And she really _was_ tired, Aika remembered with a suffering yawn as her eyes closed, and her hand closed over Fina's, pressed flush to her stomach.

In the silence of the rain, she felt the pulse of Fina's heart beating against her skin, and finally slept.


	10. It's Hard Making Friends

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Ten: It's Hard Making Friends**

* * *

_67 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Central Ixa'taka_

The next morning, they left behind the tall and circular mountain teeming with Valuan patrol ships and headed north. The green lands hung ahead of them, with the skies full of rain and the warmth so vastly different than it had been in Maramba and the desert around the Temple of Pyrynn. There, it had been dry, unceasing, something to be feared.

But here in Ixa'taka, Vyse realized, it wasn't _hot_, it was _warm. _Warm, and wet, oppressively so. Even with the windows cracked open in the wheelhouse to let in the breeze, his hair was plastered to his forehead, and he was certain he was _leaking_ sweat into his boots. Drachma seemed remarkably unaffected by it, merely tying a wet bandana around his neck and then slipping a dry one above his eyes. Fina's silvery dress did a fantastic job of staying dry, regardless of how flushed her face was. But the thing Vyse noticed the most was Aika, who was _baking_ under the humidity and had unlaced the top of her leather bustier to 'let the girls breathe' as she put it, and he couldn't help but notice just how perfectly her undershirt clung to her body, revealing the outline of her…

Vyse shut his eyes and forced his head to look straight on as they continued to sail. _No. Not going to think about that. _

He cleared his throat. "Aika? What's our fuel status?"

"We've got about four hours of propulsion left. After that...say, another day before the _Little Jack _loses lift and we either land it on solid ground or sink to the Deep Sky." Aika responded, dabbing at her face.

"And no moonstone refueling station around here to be had." Vyse said, going for a weak joke. "I haven't exactly seen a lot of ships or settlements around here either. Nowhere to go for directions."

"If the Valuans acted like their usual, dumb, oppressive selves, I'd bet you anything that anyone who lives here would go to ground and hide." Aika snarked back.

Fina hummed thoughtfully. "You mean, like Vyse's father and the _Albatross _crew were going to after we rescued them?"

"Exactly like it." Vyse said with a chuckle. "Of course, since we don't know how exactly any of the Ixa'takans...should we call them that?...might camouflage their settlements, we could still use a bit of direction and advice.

Drachma stepped out past the wheel and parked himself in front of the forward window, leaning until his forehead was almost touching the reinforced glass.

Then he grunted, stepped back, and pointed a finger. "There, boy." Ahead of them, and down below tree level beside a lake was parked a vessel maybe one and a half times the size of the _Little Jack_, which would have gone unnoticed save for a sudden breeze from a different direction tossing a green canopy...and the black sails revealed underneath, perfectly visible even when furled. "Put 'er down next to that ship."

"Is that a pirate ship?" Aika got out the ship's telescope and extended the tube to get a closer look. Drachma shook his head and chuckled.

"No. That, lass, be a ship of the Black Market."

* * *

The ship looked to have about fifteen to twenty years of patina, and whoever the owner was spent enough money to keep it running well enough by a quick exterior glance, but didn't give two figs for how it looked. The _Little Jack_ settled down onto the ground next to it, and Vyse and Aika quickly threw all the levers to completely disengage the engines and cut the levitation drive. From there, it was just a quick stroll to get on board the other vessel and go looking for the crew…

Though there didn't appear to be one on board.

"Captain Drachma, I'm not sure anyone's home." Aika mused, digging into a crate packed with straw and coming up with nothing but a cracked, empty bottle of rum and a disgusted look on her face. "Ugh. Smells awful. I think a bird's been using this for a nest."

Vyse stayed on high alert, strolling ahead with swords drawn while the girls and Drachma lingered near the back. He listened for the shuffle of footsteps or the creaking of a floorboard. But there was nothing.

"Let me see that bottle, Aika." Drachma suddenly said, and Vyse glanced back as Drachma took the broken bottle in his mechanical hand and turned it over slowly. The old man sniffed at it, made a face, then turned it around and examined the bottom of the container.

Then, strangely, he smiled and threw it over his shoulder, letting it break into a thousand tiny shards across the deck behind them. "I know who's here. You can relax, boy. We won't be needing those swords on this ship."

"You know who the captain is, Drachma?" Vyse asked, sheathing his cutlasses and doing his best not to look too relieved. Drachma might be at ease, but he was still in unfamiliar territory.

"Aye." Drachma drawled, looking up at the sky. "And this time of day, he'll still be wallowing in bed." He looked over to Aika and Fina. "Girls, the galley's down the stairs two flights and then halfway to the stern, port side. You'll be wanting to brew up some tea. Some _strong_ tea. Boy, you're coming with me."

Aika and Fina looked over to Vyse for confirmation, and Vyse caught the twitch in the corner of Drachma's eye that they treated _him_ as the leader. Vyse just smirked, patted Drachma on the shoulder, and headed for the stairs. "You heard him, ladies. Hup hup."

"Insufferable pup." Drachma grumbled lowly, trudging after him.

"So, strong tea." Vyse said, when they were a floor down and he let the old man take point in their search for the ship's owner. "Mind if I ask why?"

"For the hangover he's going to have." Drachma answered coolly. "And the headache I'm about to give him." They stopped in front of a closed door, and Drachma put a finger to his lips to keep Vyse from asking any more questions. Then he nudged the door open, the thing creaking on rusty hinges, revealing a pitted out mess of a bedroom littered with wrappers, bottles, and clay jugs. The entire room smelled of stale sweat, spilled beer, and soiled clothes, and Vyse leaned out of the room to suck in a breath before diving back inside.

The smells didn't seem to affect Drachma in the slightest, who strolled up towards the bed and the snoring lump buried underneath a patchworn blanket on top of it. He reached over with his mechanical arm, grabbed hold of the far edge of the mattress, and then _turned it completely over_. The lump of sleeping inebriate came to right after impact with the floor, groaning in pain.

"Up and at 'em, ye drunken reprobate!" Drachma bellowed, his voice thundering in the small cabin. The groaning intensified, and the lump slowly stretched out, a scrawny leg emerging from the cocoon. "Sun's up and it's time to move yer' sorry ass in gear, you've got customers!"

"Moons, Drachma, not so _loud…_" The ship's owner groaned. The lump stopped moving after a few seconds, and Drachma looked back to Vyse, holding up his left arm and counting down his fingers as they waited for the fellow to come to his senses.

"Wait. Drachma? The fu…" The fellow's head finally emerged from the pile, with blurry brown eyes blinking wildly under a ragged and thinning mop of graying brown hair. He blinked a few more times after shooting a quick look to Vyse. Outside, the chirp of insects and the screeching of wild birds accented the odd moment. "Um, am I still drunk, or are you actually here, Drachma?"

In response, Drachma reached down with his left arm and flicked the man's forehead, making him hiss in pain and clutch at it. "Finish taking your morning piss, Lorenzo, and then meet me in the galley." He turned and gestured at Vyse, then walked out of the door.

"Hey, the hell do you mean, finish my mor…" Lorenzo started angrily, then paused and looked down at his blanket, and to the wet spot on the front of it. "Oh. Bugger me." Vyse wrinkled his nose again and quickly chased after Drachma.

"Interesting friend." He finally said out in the hallway, coughing away the smell.

Drachma snorted at that. "How many _friends_ do you think that drunk actually has, Vyse?"

* * *

His name was Lorenzo, and as Drachma explained while giving the alcoholic a hangover cure of strong tea mixed with other things that the old man outright refused to detail, he was a black marketeer that he'd had dealings with up in North Ocean some time ago. On first evaluation, Vyse had found very little about the man worthy of notice, and his opinion hadn't required much adjustment. Lorenzo looked to be a man in his early to mid forties, with his hair going gray and falling out at the same time. There were holes in his teeth, and the trousers and striped shirt he'd thrown on were _marginally_ clean, but still carried some of the same stink as the rest of his room had. His brown eyes were bloodshot, but he was quickly perking up. Whatever Drachma had given him was doing the trick.

"Long time ago." Lorenzo muttered, shaking his head. "One-Armed Drachma, as I live and breathe. The hell are you doing in Ixa'taka? How the hell did you get here? And for that matter, who the hell are _these kids?_" He gestured wildly at Aika, Fina, and Vyse, who stayed clustered by the doorway and as far away from the terrible smelling man as they possibly could. Only Drachma seemed immune to the marketeer's foul odor.

"They're a...temporary crew." Drachma muttered. "Vyse, Aika, and Fina. I could hardly go sailing across the Southern Ocean on my own now, could I?"

The black marketeer snorted, then did a double take. "Wait. What? Vyse? As in, two-stars on the Valuan piracy board, Vyse the Determined?"

"Oh, joy. I'm _determined_ now." Vyse sighed, looking to Aika and Fina, who both didn't bother hiding the giggles. "Would have thought I'd get a better name after squashing Admiral Belleza."

Lorenzo harrumphed and took another swig of the tea, making a face. "Your hangover cure is still terrible, Drachma." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver flask, then poured out a few liberal swigs into the cup. "There. Hair of the dog. You want some?"

"Is it that same rotgut we found an empty bottle of out on your deck?"

"No. That's just what I drink when I'm bored. This is the _good_ rum."

"Hand it over then." Drachma groused, and took a hearty chug from the flask, exhaling loudly after. "Sweet as ever. And illegal in Valua."

"Like that ever concerned us." Lorenzo smirked, raising his glass. The two old men clinked flask and metal mug together in a makeshift toast. "So. The Southern Ocean? You _really_ crossed it?"

"Aye. That's one of the reasons I'm glad we found you." Drachma capped the flask after another swig and handed it back.

Hung over as he was, Lorenzo's brain had finally caught up, and he glanced at them under couched eyebrows with unusual acuity. "Running low on fuel?"

"Aye."

"Figured. You still using those same piss-poor cannons?"

"Added a new one."

"Harpoon Cannon. After-market modifications, which _definitely_ made it illegal. I heard about it. Story goes you took down Belleza with it. So. You need some more fuel, and maybe I can convince you to buy some better armament."

"Eager to make a sale, are we? Must have pissed it all away on the booze again." Drachma folded his arms. Lorenzo chuckled a bit at that.

"Hardly. Getting past the iron netting the Valuans put up to keep anyone else from getting into Ixa'taka takes bribes. Some serious ones. I'll need something substantial for my trouble."

"Oh, sure. Like you ever threw money at the border guards when you could pawn off whatever crap you had down in the hold instead."

"No, you're thinking of yourself, you one-eyed hack. Like that time you tried to pay me for that new engine mount with a pile of dried fish, like we were still using the barter system!"

For his part, Vyse watched the exchange with the curiosity only an outsider to the game of black market buying and selling could possess. It was obvious that there was an easy back and forth between the two, and they hadn't gotten serious about the sale yet. There weren't any numbers being spoken, or even the indirect phrasing that he'd heard some of the Nasrian merchants bandying about while they'd been in Maramba.

It was more like they were old friends hedging around the issue, using the opportunity to catch up on old times and throw insults at someone who wouldn't mind them.

"Seriously, though. For a while there, the Valuan patrols around here were _thick_. After you lot had your dustup with Belleza, the Valuans had an entire battle group waiting for you all to show up." Lorenzo waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "You never did do things by half-measures, Drachma. You and your new friends pissed them off _but good_. I had to put down and hide the ship to keep them from impounding it and throwing me in the brig."

"Aye." Drachma stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Good thing that the trip took us a while longer than we thought. But I see you made good use of the time. Haven't seen you this ruddy in the face in a decade."

"Seemed as good a time for a bender as any." Lorenzo shrugged. "Wasn't anything going on, after all. They finally thinned out and sent most of the group back home just a week ago, though. Guess they thought you'd up and gotten lost at sea."

"Almost were." Drachma said laconically. "So. We're in the market for three things. Fuel, maybe better guns...and information."

"I could spare a few days' worth of fuel for the right price, but I'll be heading back home myself soon now that things have quieted down some." Lorenzo cocked his head to the side. "And guns...Actually I've got in some Valuan-issued 'Shock' class torpedoes."

That got Vyse's attention. "Shock Torpedoes? And the launchers?"

Lorenzo grinned, and Vyse realized he'd made a mistake in the bargaining. Drachma turned and glowered at him for it as well.

"That I do, Mr. Vyse the Determined. Fire and track them in for maximum impact on target with your normal shots. They'll do a number on arcwhales, I figure...and they'll ruin a Valuan warship's day as well." He looked back at Drachma. "I figure you could even rig 'em up to fire out of those old side cannonholes on your gun deck, if you didn't want to mess up your foredeck too badly.. There's just the matter of paying for it."

"Aye. Well. We're not flush with money at the moment." Drachma explained, which made Lorenzo's face fall. He turned to Vyse, quirked the eyebrow over his left eye, then turned back to the black marketeer. "You still have your Guild accreditation?"

"For Discoveries and the like? Yeah. There's this one explorer fella named Domingo I was expecting, but this whole blowup with the Armada waiting for you must have put a damper on his plans to go looking for new things out here."

Vyse filed that tidbit about Domingo away; he'd met the man briefly on Sailor's Island, and every time Domingo got a whiff of something before Vyse did, the price on what he did find dropped sharply. Here, he had an opportunity to make some coin before Domingo ever knew about a rumor.

Still. More pressing needs first.

"How'd the Guild like to hear about a few things we stumbled across during our grand ocean voyage?" Vyse inquired, getting into the spin of the haggle. "That sort of Discovery information worth anything to you?"

Lorenzo tapped the side of his nose with a finger. "Might be. Okay. Third thing. Information from me. What about, exactly?"

Drachma gestured to Vyse, indicating for him to keep plowing along. Vyse breathed in and out.

"We're looking for the native Ixa'takans. We figure they've gone into hiding because of the Valuans."

"For the most part, yes." Lorenzo suddenly looked like he was constipated, and it took Vyse a moment to catch on that he was thinking very hard. "But. I think there's one settlement close by that's a little more exposed. Supposedly, there's a crew of pirates that crashed there. Had some dealings with them, but the natives pretty much shun them."

"Pirates?" Aika made a face. "Black Pirates?"

"Oh, no. The Blue ones."

Vyse blinked at the news, and didn't even think to correct the man that they were _Blue Rogues_, and not Blue Pirates.

"Blue Rogues? Here? In Ixa'taka?" He said, surprised and hopeful. "Where? Where's this village?"

"It's called Horteka." Lorenzo replied. "On an island floating in the upper range of the flyable sky to the southeast of us. A couple of hours."

"Shoot, we flew right by that island and missed it!" Aika muttered, kicking her boot into the decking.

"I guess we're going back then." Vyse grinned.

"As soon as we finish our transactions." Lorenzo corrected him. "A man's gotta eat."

"Lorenzo, you _drink_ your dinners." Drachma scoffed.

Lorenzo laughed and patted his, by comparison to the white-haired sailor, flatter torso. "It may be hell on my liver, but at least I look good! Now spill it, Vyse. What did you find out there in that swirling mess of wind, rain, and tempests?"

Vyse, his head thrumming with excitement at finding _other_ Blue Rogues in the world, did his best to keep it on the back burner and stick to the sale. "So, there we were, just turning the corner from Typhoon Alley to the corridor of windswept islands…"

* * *

_Horteka Village_

Aside from one momentary stir at the gates as they arrived, when the natives had questioned Fina in halting Mid-Ocean tradespeak if she was 'Quetya', the Hortekans had more or less ignored them when they laid anchor and strolled into what passed for civilization. Many wore wooden masks with fearsome faces carved into them. The villagers inside of their residences, however, went without. Perhaps the masks had been something worn only by those out in the open, like the Nasrian women did with their veils and shawls.

Indifference, Vyse realized, was likely the preferred means of the Ixa'takans dealing with them. Worse were the ones who glared at them hotly, openly. As soon as the news had passed around that they were not Quetya, or servants of Quetya, that they were just more foreigners come to Ixa'taka like the Valuans, the change was immediate.

Vyse preferred them hiding and staring at them from the shadows, as opposed to any of the more direct means of voicing their displeasure. They'd already been turned away from Horteka's supplies merchant and weapons smith, a father and daughter pair who looked at Vyse like he was some kind of poisonous frog to be killed on the spot, if they could manage it without being attacked.

"Not our biggest fan club." Aika muttered lowly. Neither she nor Vyse had felt the need to draw their weapons, and Cupil was still in bracelet form around Fina's wrist, but the feeling of so many hostile eyes on them had her jumpy as the cats she liked to collect stuffed animals of in her youth. "Who's Quetya, anyways?"

The name picked at the back of Vyse's brain. He'd heard it somewhere before, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember where. "Someone important, I guess. Someone they look up to."

"The way they used it in conversation implies some sort of...guardian, or a patron god or goddess, perhaps." Fina suggested. She shifted the fabric of her sleeve a little. "Though, it doesn't explain why they all looked at me like I was a goddess."

_It's not that hard to think_, Vyse thought to himself, and then quickly shook his head before Aika could catch his gaze and make a guess at what he'd been thinking. Stubborn girl had eyes like a hawk for some things, and she was always watching him now when she wasn't preoccupied. "Well, put a pin in that for now. Since the Hortekans aren't inclined to be all that helpful, maybe we can find these rumored Blue Rogues Drachma's friend Lorenzo told us about."

"I told you boy, he's not my friend." Drachma groused.

"Oh, right. My mistake. I forgot you didn't have any friends." Vyse snarked back at him with a wink, getting a frustrated glower from the old man, and a hearty laugh from Aika. "Okay. So. If I were a Blue Rogue living here in Horteka...around a bunch of people who rarely gave me the time of day…"

"You'd want to be living as far away from them as you possibly could, aye?" Drachma surmised.

Aika, walking ahead of them as they meandered the wooden walkways through the treetop dwellings, came to a stop and tilted her head to the side. "Like on the other side of the island, maybe?" She said, pointing down and to their right, and to a tunnel burrowed through the foliage overgrown with lichens.

* * *

The settlement where there was any sign of Blue Rogue activity was clear of any of the dwellings inhabited by the Ixa'takan natives. A rusted-out, moss-covered airship with _flywheel propulsion_ was half buried in the ground and perched precariously close to the edge of the village with a picturesque view of the distant green islands through the haze of a constant foggy drizzle.

Children, all of them younger than ten, were running around in the open ground, laughing and yelling and screaming through some bizarre game of tag that Vyse couldn't quite place. To his surprise, there was even an Ixa'takan girl with them, though in comparison to their striped sailor's shirts and rough and patched trousers, her own clothes made her stick out even more than the darker color of her skin.

They all stopped playing and stared at the four pale-skinned strangers that strolled by them, past the outdoor tents and tarps covering up old crates of supplies and piles of drying sardis and fruit. One of the boys finally got tired of just staring at them and came up, standing in Vyse's path and crossing his arms like a stubborn doorman.

"Who are you?" He demanded.

"We're Blue Rogues." Vyse said. The boy frowned and squinted his eyes.

"Nuh-uh! My daddy's a Blue Rogue and he doesn't look _anything_ like you all. You're all weird!" He pointed at Drachma and made a face. "Especially him!"

"Hey, now." Drachma complained with a snort.

"Well, he's not wrong. You _are_ weird looking." Aika smirked, before looking back to the boy. "Listen, do you know where the adults are? We really are Blue Rogues, sport. We came a long way to get here, and we need to talk to them."

"That's enough, Clarence!" A harried-looking woman with graying brown hair came racing out of the grounded ship, her hands on the skirt of her dress so she wouldn't trip over the hem. A young man in a red shirt and brandishing an overly long wrench was hot on her heels, and they came to a stop in front of Vyse and the others.

The older woman scrutinized him, and Vyse squirmed under the stare so much like his own mother's before he gave her a respectful nod. "Ma'am. Are you...Are you the Blue Rogues we've heard about?"

"That would depend on who is asking." She said primly, and the youth on her left slung the wrench over his shoulder. "Or did your parents not teach you to make introductions?"

Vyse chuckled and rubbed at the back of his head. "I'm sorry. My name is Vyse, son of Dyne."

"Dyne of the Blue Storm?" The woman said incredulously, cutting him off.

Vyse had to blink at that. "...You know my father?"

"He's a legend among the Blue Rogues. My husband often spoke of him. Never had an unkind word to say." She smiled and bowed her head slightly. "My name is Caroline. My husband is Centime, the Tinker...another Blue Rogue." As the children started to gather around them, Danielle expanded her arms out. "And these are our children."

Aika made a choking noise at that. "A...all of them?"

The older boy standing by Caroline, now at ease, gave her a smile. "You can relax. We're all adopted. I'm Hans, by the way."

Vyse nodded back. "And these are my friends, Aika and Fina...and this is Drachma."

While the old man grunted and crossed his arms at being so singled out, Caroline bowed to each of them in turn. "I'm happy to have so many fellow Blue Rogues here, but I have to ask...how did you end up here? Were you taken by a hurricane as well and blown off course like we were?"

"Afraid not." Vyse said. "We took the long way around, crossed the Southern Ocean to get here. When we heard that there might be Blue Rogues here, we had to come investigate."

"That must be some story." Caroline mused, shaking her head. "But something tells me you didn't come here for us."

"No." Vyse admitted. "Happy surprise, though. And we could use a friendly face to fill us in on the situation here."

Carolina beamed at them. "Of course. We were just about to have lunch. Are you hungry?"

"I could eat." Drachma said agreeably, and that opinion was one that they all shared.

* * *

After the first introductions, the woman who oversaw the encampment insisted on Vyse and the girls calling her 'Carol', as she was always 'mom' to the children and had long been denied the pleasure of having friends she could use her favorite nickname with. A bit of back and forth proceeded over a lunch of roasted squab with a pan full of roasted fruits and vegetables that was sweet to the taste. Hortekan _aila loqua_, a lightly fermented cider, capped off the meal and made the tough game birds slide down more easily. Simple topics came first; a hurricane had thrown their tiny ship across the South Ocean and had left them stranded on the shores of Horteka. They had quickly established an uneasy relationship with the natives, who were gunshy after Valuan aggression in the region, making trades of Mid-Ocean goods for food and supplies for repairs, but even that much had been slow going at first. When a Valuan patrol had stumbled across their camp, Centime had surrendered himself, with the stipulation that the children and his wife would be left alone. For their part, Vyse explained how they'd made the crossing over the Southern Ocean, and how they'd just barely cleared it before their fuel supply went critical. Carol was surprised to hear that there was a black marketeer in the area, and asked Vyse to have the fellow sail by if they saw Lorenzo again; Centime's ship, the _Iron Clad_, was in desperate need of parts that Hans struggled to repair or fabricate without his father's assistance.

It was Fina who led off into the more nebulous realm of personal questions. "So...all of the children here, they're adopted?" She asked. "And adoption means that they are not yours biologically, but that you have assumed responsibility for them?"

"Exactly so." Carol smiled at her sadly. "Centime and I...we tried, when we were younger, but I wasn't...well. We just reached a point where we realized that if we could not have children of our own, we still owed it to the world to be parents. So, we started adopting."

"And never stopped." Hans, the oldest of the children in the Blue Rogue camp, cut in. "Mom even has an Ixa'takan girl now. Well, sort of. Her name is Ba'zili, and her parents were killed in a bad Valuan raid. The rest of the village looks out for her too, but she drifted in with the rest of us. There are others her age here."

"Anybody can make a child." Aika argued. "It takes a real parent to raise one. At least, that's what Vyse's mom likes to say."

"Okay, so here's one for you all." Carol said, setting her plate aside. "You didn't just cross the Southern Ocean for the heck of it. The world at large doesn't know about Ixa'taka; Valua's been keeping news of this place suppressed. What made you try the journey that we made on accident?"

Vyse chuckled. "You wouldn't believe us."

"Try me, young man."

"All right. We're saving the world." Vyse gestured to Fina. "And helping her to do it. Fina is from a hidden civilization who saw that the Valuans would bring the world to ruin if they got their hands on these ancient, powerful moonstone energy sources called the Moon Crystals. With them, Valua could wake up some terrifying creatures called Gigas."

Carol blinked at the confession. "My. And there's...one of these Moon Crystals, here?"

"Somewhere." Fina confirmed. "I only know about the old world, the ancient civilizations. But in the Green Lands, there's supposed to be the Green Crystal."

Carol's face went hard. "The Valuans have taken enough from these poor people."

"Agreed." Vyse nodded. "They've taken enough from everyone. But getting the Ixa'takans to help us has been difficult. You didn't exactly get a warm welcome yourself, right Carol? What changed?"

"The day Centime was taken, that's what happened." Carol shut her eyes. "They came and took him, and left the village alone. After that, the people of Horteka all realized we were like them. Lighter skin, different clothes...but all of us, oppressed by Valua. If you want to change their minds about you, and get some help, then you need to speak to the village elder. I wouldn't have the foggiest clue where to start with helping you with your search. But he would."

"Where does he live?" Vyse asked, feeling at last like progress was being made.

"Back into the village. Go down to the lowest level, cross a few bridges, use the underground passage to the far side. Just short of the lookout's cliff, you'll find a few huts. His is the largest over there."

"Terrific." Vyse stacked up his dishes and stood up, giving Carol a grateful nod. "Thank you, ma'am. For the food, and the advice. Aika, Fina, Drachma. Come on. Let's hustle it up."

"Actually, Vyse?" Aika said suddenly. She bit her lip and looked back towards the ship. "If it's all right with you, mind if I stay here until we're ready to head out? Hans said he'd be willing to lend us some more moonstone fuel, but I'd like to do something to make up for it. I can help him fix up the _Iron Clad_ while you're off playing diplomat."

Vyse blinked once, saw the logic in it, and gave his oldest friend a thumbs up. "Sounds good to me. Don't work her too hard, Hans! I need her able to fight if we bump into the Valuans out there!"

The red-shirted engineer and adopted son of Centime and Carol chuckled. "No promises, Mr. Vyse."

_I'm going to choke on this much formality_, Vyse mused, and headed out with the Blue Rogue children shouting goodbyes after him.

* * *

The village elder of Horteka was an old, stern man, whose wrinkles were forged more out of stress and suffering than laughter. When Vyse, Fina, and Drachma had appeared, he had startled once at the Silvite's form, but quickly returned to himself, scowling as he looked down at them.

"You come seeking our help. You claim to be different. But all I see are more travelers from the east, come to take and give nothing back."

"What can we do to prove to you that we are not like the Valuans?" Vyse finally asked, having exhausted every explanation. That they were Blue Rogues meant nothing to the village chief. That they were enemies of Valua, also meant nothing. The old Hortekan was unsatisfied with words. Something stronger was needed as the burden of proof.

He wavered, leaning on his walking stick, judging Vyse. "I give my permission for you to speak to the villagers." He gestured once to a messenger who had been standing by the door, and the masked fellow took off like a shot, likely to pass the news on. "If you are here to help, as you claim to be, then you must first learn of our suffering. See what the men from the east have done, feel the pain they have caused. Then, come back to me. We shall see if your conviction is equal to the burden you claim."

Vyse exhaled, nodded. Stood up, went for the door.

Drachma leaned in once they were well clear. "Not exactly rolling out the welcome mat, are they, boy?"

"Scars run deep." Vyse mused. "And I get the feeling that theirs have been growing for years."

* * *

The people of Horteka, forewarned that the elder wanted them to share their stories, wasted no time when Vyse, Fina, and Drachma came to visit them. The shopkeeper and his daughter that had turned them away explained, with no small amount of venom, that the mother of their family had been ripped away from them to work in the 'sacred mountain', to mine moonstones for the invaders. They met the sharp-eyed hunter Tikatika, who was so distraught over his inattentiveness to see the Valuans coming before the first raids that he now stayed up on the cliff beyond the elder's hut, keeping constant vigil for trouble. His already keen eyes had been sharpened, through guilt and sheer determination, to mythical levels of ability; he even pointed out some landmarks for Vyse to look for later on. He would have made the best ship's lookout in the world, Vyse thought to himself.

But of all the people in the village who shared their stories with them, none made quite the impact as a woman perhaps a year or two older than Vyse and Fina, who lived and once worked in the Hortekan great hut. Giant vats of loqua simmered away, filling the upper floors of the building with a sweet and cloying scent, but down below, all was quiet. Her name was Merida, and she served them all a wooden cup of Horteka's prized alcoholic beverage, made out of the garpa fruits which grew in abundance on, and _underneath_, the island.

Vyse did his best not to stare too openly, but Fina must have been taking lessons from Aika. She caught him several times...but instead of the admonishments or punches to the shoulder that Aika would have given him, Fina just smiled, occasionally smirked, and looked between the silver-haired dancer and Vyse.

"She is quite beautiful." Fina observed.

"I suppose." Vyse conceded, gritting the words out. "You can tell she's a dancer. Her body's built for it."

"Oh? How can you tell?"

"Well, her build." Vyse said, happy for a slightly safer topic. "A warrior skilled with a bow will have strong arms and shoulders, a powerful back to support the weapon and allow him to draw it back as far as possible. Like Tikatika. He wears that mask all the time, but his back and shoulders were very well defined. A person who runs for a living will have a slender build, but powerful legs to fuel their strides. And with Merida...well. She has a build close to a runner, but the tone and definition in her calves and ankles are much more prominent."

"I didn't know you paid such close attention to people's bodies." Fina teased him. "Should I be worried?"

Vyse snorted and took advantage of the cup of loqua, drinking to buy himself time to think. "Why would you worry about where I'm looking?"

"No reason." Fina said, far too innocently. There were still things about the world she was oblivious to, but _attraction_ and _looks _were not a part of that list. And she was a terrible liar.

Vyse looked to Merida, drained the rest of his glass, gestured towards her. The liquid didn't have much of a burn, and retained the bulk of its sweetness. He doubted any Mid-Ocean cider was its equal. "Merida, could I trouble you for another glass?" The silver-haired woman came over, her long and tanned legs moving gracefully beneath her grass skirt, giving a hint of the treasure her undergarments concealed. Vyse looked away to Drachma, and his face burned when he realized the old man was smirking just as hard, and with far less disguised innocence than Fina had at catching him in the act.

Merida poured him a second cup, her eyes narrowed and her jaw set. She didn't trust him. She didn't like him.

So Vyse opened his mouth and just dove into it.

"Merida, are you a dancer?"

Her eyes shot wide, and Vyse knew he'd gotten her attention.

"I was." She said, and the scowl returned. "But I have nothing to dance for now."

"Because of the Valuans." Vyse wagered. "They...they hurt you. Took people from you."

"Yes." The young woman said curtly. "My parents. I danced to bring joy to my people, to honor Quetya and the gods. But then the men from the east came, bringing fire and death and ruin."

"I know." Vyse said sympathetically, and felt the prick of some familiar thought he couldn't entirely place zipping around just out of reach. "The Valuans hurt everyone. My people, the Blue Rogues, have been fighting against them for years. But we _could_ fight back. Here? In Ixa'taka? There was nobody able to fight them."

Merida's anger crumbled into sorrow, and she looked away, tucking the serving platter under her arm. "I even wrote a letter to Quetya, sent it on the winds...asking for her help. But Quetya did not come. So we suffer, and we die, and the men from the east...they keep on taking what they want."

Vyse blinked rapidly. She wrote a letter? A letter to Quetya? It dug harder in his mind, forcing him to think about it, to consider it.

"This letter...how did you send it?"

"I put it in a bottle left by the easterners. Tied it to a balloon. Sent it into the skies."

Like a thunderbolt, Vyse placed it. He knew that letter. He had carried it with him ever since finding it on Sailor's Island. That letter, a plea for help in the face of Valuan aggression, had given him the resolve to go on right before he and Aika and Drachma had left to infiltrate Valua.

He pulled out the carefully folded letter from his pocket, and held it out to her. "I found your letter." Vyse told Merida solemnly. The girl dropped the platter, reached to the folded up note with a shaky hand, unfolded it and gasped when she saw her own handwriting.

Her eyes, misting up, went to his face. Vyse mustered a smile. "Quetya did not come, Merida...but maybe, she sent us instead."

Merida's lip quivered. "You...You will help?"

"I swear by the Moons, we will try." Vyse promised her. "Blue Rogues always help out those in need."

"It's his code." Fina added helpfully, putting her hand on the side of his arm. "His oath."

Merida wiped her eyes, chuckled a little, and actually smiled. It filled the room, and she stood a little straighter after it. "Then I will dance again, to give you the strength to fight the Valuans." And she skipped back away from them and headed for the stage.

And by the Moons, could she dance. She held nothing back, there was nothing refined. Just raw, explosive power in controlled movements to a drumbeat only she could hear, a dance meant to awaken the gods.

It awakened Vyse, because there was no mistaking the sensual pull it caused. He drank his loqua and sat transfixed, in awe of Merida, and of her people.

These were the victims of Valuan expansion and oppression. Bitter, withdrawn, jaded. But for those few minutes, he saw a glimpse of who they had been, who they really were. Joyful. Exultant. Uninhibited, full of life. Fina had said that the Green Moon brought the powers of renewal and restoration, of newness. Healing magic, vitality, was the domain of the emerald moonstones.

"She's amazing." Fina marveled, in a breathy whisper. Vyse swallowed back another sip of his drink, his throat still dry.

"She is." He agreed hoarsely.

"Is she the kind of girl you're looking for?" Fina asked, so innocently that Vyse, still entranced by Merida's erotic display, had to blink before he caught the hitch in her voice. Without turning his head, he bent his eyes sidewards to glance at the Silvite.

She had one hand up to the side of her head, brushing back her headdress to curl a finger in her blond tresses. Like she was worried. Or lost in contemplation.

"No. Not really." Vyse managed to answer.

"What kind of girl _are_ you looking for?" Fina asked, and turned her head slightly to meet his eyes straight on.

Vyse didn't dare blink. He knew what this was now. In her own way, Fina was doing exactly what Aika had tried days before when they were alone.

And Drachma, able to read the room better than any of them, stood up from his chair as the wood groaned, glass in hand, and walked by them. "I need some air." He muttered gruffly, leaving Vyse alone with Fina and the Hortekan woman dancing up on stage to inspire them.

Trapping Vyse with Fina, really. The bastard.

What _did_ Vyse want? Well, that was easy. Or it had been, up until Fina stumbled into his life, into their lives, and suddenly Aika went from aggressively playful and friendly to...grabby and jealous. And just aggressive. It didn't matter what he wanted, Vyse told himself. Because they were both…

Aika, always at his side. The first to step into danger with him. The one who knew how, even when he stood bold and proud in the face of danger, he still carried worries and doubts. A girl who was strong in her own right, proud...Always proving herself.

Fina. Demure. Naive in most things, yet profoundly wise in others. Her smile could light up the room with warmth, and to make her laugh was an untold joy. She commanded a mastery of magic that left even Aika's considerable skill in the dust, and her mind was a steel trap of forgotten lore. She had fallen into their lives like a meteor, changed everything, and somehow, still found her place.

How could he choose either of them without hurting the other? Why did it just feel _right_ to have them both around?

Moons, his mother had known before he had. '_Don't string them along. A woman's heart is more fragile than you know.'_

What did he want? What kind of girl was he looking for?

_I'm not looking. They found me. _And he couldn't do a damn thing about it. Not when choosing one would hurt the other.

Not with the fate of the world riding on their shoulders.

"I want…" Vyse said, closing his eyes. "Someone strong enough to be themselves. Someone who wants to be in my life...and still have one of their own."

Fina hmmed thoughtfully. "I see. If I understand you...you don't want them just becoming a part of you and losing who they are. Or were."

"Yes, exactly!" Vyse insisted. "Not like my mo…" And his eyes snapped open as his mouth clamped shut.

Fina just smiled at him. "Like your mother." She finished.

"...Yeah." He mumbled, and looked back to Merida as the girl, now sweating lightly along her forehead, came to the conclusion of her dance.

Fina leaned into him, and her head fell against his shoulder. His traitorous hand came up and pulled her closer on reaction alone.

"I would think that any girl you liked enough to be in a relationship with would be strong enough to remember who she was." Fina sighed. "It's not about giving up who you are, you know. Or it shouldn't be."

"What is it, then?" Vyse rasped.

"It's caring enough about someone to want to be in their life...and still allowing them to have their own." She said, and sighed again when his hand rubbed up and down the side of her arm.

"Sounds hard." Vyse admitted.

"Harder than going up against an empire trying to rule the world?" Fina suggested playfully, and Vyse chuckled.

"Hell. Sounds almost easy by comparison."

"It depends on how much room you have in your heart." The Silvite nuzzled his shoulder, and that was just enough to make him freeze. She went still, and Vyse pulled his arm away from her, scooted away from her side. "I'm sorry, I…"

"It's all right." Vyse waved off her shaky apology, breathing deep. It had gotten...too real, too quickly. He turned and looked to Merida, who stood there, panting and flushed as she looked to Vyse and Fina. "I think I know why the village elder asked us to visit with everyone, Merida. I understand your pain now."

"And I will go with you when you tell him you are ready to help us." The dancer promised. "Quetya has sent us a warrior, and now you carry our strength. Are you ready for what is to come?"

This, Vyse knew. Relationships? Hard. But living up to the Code of the Blue Rogues? Fighting Valua? Saving the world?

"Born ready." He promised Merida. Fina, looking a little disappointed, rallied well enough to smile at him and Merida, and give them both her usual respectful nod.

She was hurt a little, but nothing compared to how hurt she would be if he gave in. Or how hurt Aika would be. If he chose.

He would stick to keeping them both as friends.

That was hard enough.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This story is also available to read on Archive Of Our Own, and over there, you can get an occasional end of chapter rant from yours truly. Just putting that out there for you all.


	11. Burn It All Down

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Eleven: Burn It All Down**

* * *

_67 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Late Afternoon_

_Central Ixa'taka_

Aika didn't know how Vyse had managed it. Somehow, in the space of the few hours between when the rest of the crew went off and left her alone with Hans, his adopted mother Carol, and the rusted out _Iron Clad_, the youngest Blue Rogue captain had managed to not only get the Hortekans to cooperate with them, but also to be more sympathetic towards them. When she tried asking him straight out, he just shrugged with an idle smile and said that 'you had to be there for it.' Drachma was next to useless, as he claimed whatever had happened, he wasn't around for it.

And Fina...Moons, she was back to wanting to _strangle_ the girl. Fina beamed as if she'd stumbled across buried treasure, and said the absolute worst thing she could have.

_"All anyone has to do is see his heart and they know that he is a good man worth putting their faith in."_

Wasted time. Hurt feelings. A lingering bitterness.

Carol, of course, had seen right through her. Only a woman could. She and Hans had worked up a storm in the ship's engine room, piecing it back to rights. They hadn't been able to take care of it completely, but Aika had been able to help Hans draw up a list of parts he would need, and write down the exact sequence of repairs. The ship would sail again in time…

But then Carol had come in, asked Hans if she could 'borrow' Aika for some help with the chores...and grilled her to within an inch of her life while they were out hanging clothes to dry. It was funny how quickly the older woman, mother to an extended family of orphans, could see to the heart of her troubles. And how easy she made the solution sound.

_"My husband Centime was just as clueless back when we were younger. Every hint I dropped just flat out escaped his notice. So, if you want Vyse to see you as more than just his childhood friend, my dear...you're going to have to beat him over the head with it. It worked for me."_

Her face had stopped being colored completely red by the time that Vyse, Fina, and Drachma had returned, but it didn't make it any less aggravating. She needed _time_ to get him by himself if she was going to follow through on Carol's advice. But time was something they didn't have. They loaded up the moonstone fuel Hans provided them for the cause, fired up the _Little Jack's_ engines, and set sail for the north, to the hidden encampment where the king of the Ixa'takan people lay in hiding.

Then they'd smelled the sting of ash and saw billowing clouds of smoke in the distance…

And she was denied another chance at getting Vyse alone. The Valuans were out in force, and burning the forest down.

That, they could not let stand.

* * *

The ship, according to the intelligence that Lorenzo had given them, was called the _Chameleon_. It was the flagship of Admiral De Loco, who was in charge of the 5th Fleet. The name was not unknown to them; De Loco's research laboratories were always churning out something, and some of his magical developments, augment glyphs that mimicked the enhancing magics of the red and blue moons, were down in storage for the next time they went racing into a fight. It was said that De Loco was an unparalleled genius. What was left out was that De Loco was, in fact, a crazed lunatic as well.

He was willing to burn down an _entire jungle rainforest_ just to locate the ancient city of Rixis, after all.

Aika grimly went racing from one spot-fire to the next with a portable fire suppression system, doing her best alongside Fina to undo the damage from the last blaze that raked the ship. "Vyse, I hope you've got a plan to deal with that flamethrower cannon of his!" She shouted. "Or did it escape your notice that we're flying in a _wooden airship_?!"

The door to the wheelhouse was still open, swinging wildly as Vyse banked them around. Not for the first time, Aika was glad for the carabiner line and harness she'd attached inside of the wheelhouse's door before stepping out; doubly glad that she'd fitted Fina for one as well. She was buckling a little meandering around on the foredeck of a ship in active combat, but Fina resembled a spinning drunk. In time, she'd become a seasoned crewmember…

Aika only had a moment to regret the world they lived in, that she had to learn how to maneuver aboard a ship locked in active combat. Then the fires beckoned.

"Oh, I've got a plan!" Vyse growled. "This guy's pissed me off enough to try something _stupid!_"

_"Boy, is this the kind of stupid that gets my ship even more banged up, or the kind of stupid that _prevents_ it?"_ Drachma's voice growled up from the speaking tube out of the gundeck.

Aika strained to hear Vyse over the sound of compressed aera dioxin blowing out of her extinguisher's nozzle. "The kind that screws De Loco over and sends him limping back home with his face blown off!"

Her tank ran dry right as Aika finished with the last of the spot fires on the deck, and she charged back into the wheelhouse. "Whatever you're going to do, Vyse, I suggest you get to it, because we're fresh out of flame retardant!" She jangled the empty canister for emphasis, and Vyse got that fierce look in his eye that made her heart skip a beat and make her grin uncontrollably. It was his look that refused to accept anything as _impossible_. The look that screamed, _The more you throw at me, the harder I keep swinging._ Because Vyse was, at his core a Blue Rogue, and Blue Rogues Never Gave Up.

It took her breath away as some final piece of herself finally slipped into place, nudged and jostled by Fina, and their quest, and this whole whirlwind mess to save the world. Just how beautiful he was when he was like this.

Oh, Moons.

Oblivious to her dumbfounded realization, Vyse was locked into the moment. "Fina! Aika! Get on the Harpoon Cannon, and try and speed up the charge sequence!" Aika sucked in a deep breath and looked over to her shipmate, and the two shared a nod that was all purpose and intent. They raced for the moonstone access line, a rigged up panel along the side of the wheelhouse with two impressions where hands could go. Ordinarily, just one person would stand there, one hand to each.

But now, Aika stood beside Fina, and each took a feeder line. Aika shut her eyes, breathed in and out to center herself, and _pushed_.

The Harpoon Cannon had never charged so fast.

"Holy…!" Vyse yelped as the gauge of the Harpoon Cannon's charge peaked with a beep. "Whatever you two are doing, keep it up! I'm bringing us into position!"

With her eyes closed and focused on the task of keeping the _Little Jack's_ main weapon ready, Aika couldn't see Vyse make the ship dance around the distant _Chameleon_, but she could certainly feel it. There was nothing unplanned in how Vyse steered the ship, no unnecessary jinks. After two passes of dealing with that ship, its subcannons, and that monstrous flamethrower off of its nose, he'd figured out how De Loco's crew flew it.

He'd figured out how to get into position.

"Get ready, Drachma!" Vyse shouted out, and then there was the familiar whine as the Harpoon Cannon powered up and began to spin on its launcher. Aika cracked her eyes open just in time to see them racing right for the _Chameleon_ in a head-on pass, and the flamethrower was getting ready to spew gouts of burning liquid all over them.

Vyse punched the firing toggle for the Harpoon Cannon, the spiraling barb flew off...and the _Chameleon _never got the chance. The hit impacted on the canister of fuel beneath the nozzle, and once depressurized, the contents spewed out in all directions, ignited, and exploded in a terrifying backblast that shredded the bow of the Valuan warship.

Down on the gundeck, Drachma immediately started reeling the harpoon's line back in. The _Chameleon_, or what was left of the charred, burning hulk that was now more black than green, turned around and started limping north.

Vyse allowed himself a dark chuckle. "That's right, De Loco. You had to go and mess with someone who had a bigger cannon than you did." He leaned the ship over slightly to get a better look at the burning forest below and frowned. "Damn. How much did he just put to the torch?"

"Less than he could have." Aika pointed out, sliding in beside him and pressing her hands to his shoulder. A rumble from the skies outside caught their attention, and they saw the low-hanging stormclouds, gentle things full of rain and no real lightning, sweeping in towards them. A curtain of moisture hung beneath them. "And it looks like the forest isn't going to be burning for very long after all."

Fina hmmed in satisfaction, taking up position on Vyse's other side. "The Green Civilization used to have a saying...the forest provides." She said cheerfully. "It's nice to see that it's still true."

* * *

_The King's Hideout_

Guided by the information provided by Horteka's chieftain, Vyse had guided the _Little Jack_ to a nondescript floating island covered in trees up in the northern portion of the Ixa'takan lands, on the eastern side of the divide. Underneath the cover of a thick canopy of trees was a log hut guarded by no less than four armed guards who brandished their spears as they walked along a barely visible path. Once they'd identified themselves, things became far more civil.

The reason quickly became apparent once they were in the presence of King Ixa'taka himself. "I would greet you with more fanfare, heroes who stand against the invaders, but...alas, this retreat has little of the creature comforts that my palace did."

Aika instantly thought back to a grand square pyramid that they had flown over on the trip after the showdown, riddled with holes and crumbling walls that were clearly the work of Valuan cannonfire. Vyse must have had the same thought, because his eyes dimmed a little before he nodded. "We passed by it on our journey, your majesty. We are sorry for its loss. The Valuans have a habit of doing things like that."

The king was in his late 20's or early 30's, with a slim build and a hat that was too ridiculous for might have been ceremonial. No, scratch that. Ugly as it was, it _had_ to be ceremonial. But then there were those wooden masks that the Hortekans liked to wear…

"Messengers from Horteka came in advance of you." The king informed them, and Aika caught Drachma crossing his arms and huffing a little. "They said that you were not our enemies, and after what you did to send their ship running away, I believe it. So, what brought you here to Ixa'taka?"

Vyse took a step forward away from the rest of them and got down on one knee, genuflecting a little. The king seemed to like that, and Aika had to admit, Vyse was getting pretty good at making friends wherever he went. He'd made friends in Maramba pretty easily as well.

Then he laid it all out for the king, matter of fact. The king leaned on his arm, going deep into thought.

"A Moon Crystal. And Rixis." He mused. "The Valuans are intent on finding Rixis as well, though you seem to have a better motivation for it. Still, I am afraid that much has been lost to legend, and if Rixis exists…"

"It exists." Fina declared, with the absolute certainty she had in matters her unique education had covered. "Or, it _did_ exist, in ancient times."

The king blinked at the assertion, then nodded once. "Unfortunately, finding Rixis would mean studying the myths and legends of our people, and to our shame, only my chief priest, Isapa, would know of these in enough detail to be of help to you."

"So, we need to meet with this Isapa then?" Vyse asked.

"That would be difficult." The king said sadly. "Being as Isapa is currently being held prisoner in the sacred mountain by the Valuans. Like so many of my people."

Aika couldn't help the scowl. "That mountain is heavily patrolled. We saw it off in the distance when we first got here."

"Seein' as the Valuans are likely using it as a source of raw moonstones for their war machine, the military presence is expected." Drachma pointed out. "They'd look at it as protectin' their investment."

Vyse exhaled. "An investment. Enslaving the locals to work in an illegal mine as slave labor is an _investment._" He was quiet, and his voice was even, and Aika shivered at it. He was angry. No, he was _livid._ "We heard stories in Horteka that were much the same. The Valuans either trampled over them roughshod or clapped their families in irons and dragged them off to work in the mine. It's as effective a prison as there can be, and the Valuans were good at killing prisoners in unsafe working conditions long before they came here. They were doing it to their own people, and to their enemies in Mid-Ocean."

The king's face paled. "The Valuans are monsters."

"Their leadership and their military is, aye." Drachma conceded. "So. To find Rixis, we'd need this priest of yours. Isapa."

"Who's being held inside of the Moonstone Mountain. Along with a great many of your people." Aika added.

"Only one thing for it, really." Vyse concluded, and the smile returned to his voice. "We'll just sneak in and bust him out."

Somebody should have laughed at that; they really needed to. Vyse was in the habit of doing crazy things and making outlandish promises, but really, Aika wasn't all that surprised. She looked over to see that Fina was just smiling with the sort of knowing expression that came with exposure, while Drachma merely looked up at the ceiling with a heavy sigh.

Only the king seemed taken aback at Vyse's plan, or lack of one. "But, how?"

Vyse chuckled at that. "Sneaking past patrols? Used to it. Busting out of heavily defended Valuan facilities? We've done that, too. Rescue missions?" And here, he looked over at Fina, who blushed a little and averted her gaze. "We could probably give lessons on it." Vyse looked back at the king and allowed himself to become serious again. "If Isapa is who we need to talk to to find Rixis and the Green Moon Crystal, then we'll bring him back to you in one piece. We're Blue Rogues, your majesty. We always help those in need." He yawned. "But, we'd be better off tackling it tomorrow."

"Of course." The king said good-naturedly. "You are welcome to stay aboard your ship, but I would be happy to let you stay in a longhouse we have available. It is normally used for the wounded, but it is empty right now."

"I'll stay with the ship." Drachma said. "Got to keep an eye on it."

Vyse looked over to Aika and Fina, hesitating. "I wouldn't mind sleeping in an actual bed for a change, but...it wouldn't exactly be proper for me to share quarters with the girls."

"Not a problem." The king smiled. "Your female companions can make use of the longhouse. You, my Blue Rogue, I invite to stay here in my guard quarters this evening, so that you will be well-rested for your journey tomorrow."

"Now that, your majesty, seems like a good idea." Vyse chuckled.

Aika closed her eyes, strongly disagreeing with it herself.

* * *

_The Guest Longhouse_

As strung out as they all were, Aika had to admit that the offer of lodging was greatly appreciated. So was the bath. An actual tub with _actual_ water was a blissful change of pace from a bucket and a grimy towel. Over the duration of their eight weeks sailing the Southern Ocean, water preservation had been key, especially in the last leg when there was nothing but constant and unceasing wind. They hadn't had time for a proper bath. Fina had taken hers first while Aika had worked on dinner. Afterwards, the Silvite girl had come back out not in her usual outfit, but in a soft homespun robe provided by the king, dyed a gentle green. Freed from its usual veil and out of her dress and the white and silver leggings she always wore beneath them, Fina looked less regal, less Princess-y...stepping gently around on bare feet with bare calves that poked out from the hem of the soft robe, her blonde hair still wet trailing down her neck and stopping short of her shoulders? She was positively domestic.

Those soft blue eyes of hers, piercingly bright, traced over Aika's weary body as she stirred at the pot. The Silvite sidled in beside her, pulled her robe's sleeve back to expose pale skin that never quite tanned, and reached for the spoon of the pot.

"Stew?" Fina asked.

"I borrowed one of the pots from the galley on the ship." Aika replied. "Figured Drachma wouldn't be missing it. You know how he prefers his food."

"Overcooked or roasted on a spit?" Fina said, and smiled again. She had so many smiles. The I'm-trying-to-be-polite-but-you're-getting-on-my-nerves smile, her I'm-not-really-happy-but-I-can-fake-it smile, and her I'm-glad-to-be-here-with-all-of-you-general-happiness smile. But the one she gave Aika then made the redhead's breathing hitch a little, because it was the rarest smile Fina had that she was getting from her now.

The smile where she was actually relaxed enough to just let down all of her walls and show a glimmer of actual personality. Aika mustered a weak chuckle and nudged the other girl's shoulder with her own. "You don't mind? Stew?"

"I could eat anything." Fina said honestly, sighing a little at the end. She sniffed the air with a touch of theatricality. "But maybe not when it smells like a burning ship."

"Hey, I'll have you know I don't burn my…" Aika started, but paused when Fina just stared at her and raised an eyebrow. "Oh. You're talking about me."

Fina giggled a little, and used her free hand to gently push Aika away from the wood-burning cookstove. "Go on. It's your turn for the bath, and Moons know you probably need one as bad as I did. I'll keep an eye on dinner." Fina hadn't tied the belt of her borrowed green robe tight enough, and it fell away from her shoulder, revealing pale, unmarred skin.

Unblemished, not a freckle to be seen, and the line of it dipping towards her chest…

"Whatever you say, Princess." Aika snorted, and turned towards the bathroom before Fina could catch her staring.

The water in the tub was tepid, but still carried the strong floral scent of…

Well. Aika snorted a little as she stuck her hand in the water and used a bit of magic to reheat the water to a proper steaming temperature. She was going to smell like Fina after this, but she was too tired to care. She'd just have to put up with smelling like a flower garden.

She peeled her smoky, sweaty, and oil-stained clothes off, leaving them piled in a heap on the floor, then started to undo the knots in her hair. The twin tails that always jutted up were perfect for the kind of work she dealt with; elbows-deep in machinery or diving into combat. But the gnarled mess that her hair turned into was the problem. Baked in the smoke of their last ship engagement, weathered by the voyage, and tucked up in the twin tails for longer than they should have been, it was tangled, it was coarse, and probably full of split ends.

Aika let out an irritated huff and sank into the water, reveling in the feel of it soaking into her skin.

"Hell of a day." She said to herself with a twinge of sarcasm. Lying in the tub, Aika looked down at herself. Athletic. Toned. Perky.

Not like Fina. She was soft, and curvy, and…

Okay, damn it, fine. Hers were bigger, and that ate at Aika's self-confidence. She sank into the water all the way, letting water flood into her ears.

But with her eyes closed, she could see the way Vyse looked at the Silvite. The way his eyes liked to trace the shape of her body, the line of her upper back that her dress always exposed. Aika burst up out of the water and scowled, reaching for a washcloth and starting the process of scrubbing her skin clean. She was rougher than she needed to be, but she welcomed the pain.

"So. I need to make a move?" She asked herself, thinking back to the conversation she'd had with Carol. "Fine. Blue Rogues never give up, right?"

* * *

"Are you all right?" Fina asked, after Aika had dressed in a similar robe and came out for dinner. "You seem a little out of sorts."

"Just thinking about things." Aika told her, accepting the bowl of stew that the other girl dished out without any fanfare. She took a spoonful of it to taste, and blinked in surprise. "Wow. This is good."

"Over a month of helping out with the cooking, and you thought I would be _bad_ at this?" Fina asked, giving that tender and unguarded smile of hers again. "Besides. You gave it a good start. And the Ixa'takans have a lot of wonderful herbs that grow around here."

"We'll have to take some with us when we get done here then." Aika chuckled, sitting down at the small table. She poured herself and Fina a glass of low-alcoholic loqua and waited for the other girl to sit down across from her. "Although we should probably ask for the dried varieties. They would store better."

The two ate in companionable silence for several minutes before Fina decided to speak up again. "We'll be fine tomorrow, you know that, right? We're going to save them."

Aika swallowed down the bite she'd been savoring and blinked over at the other girl. "Hm? What do you mean?"

Fina frowned. "The people in the mines."

"Oh." Aika considered that. "Maybe not all at once." Fina seemed ready to argue, but Aika stopped her by holding up her hand. "I want to save them, too. But you saw what kind of defenses they have in place around that mine. We can only _guess_ at the forces they have inside of it. And there's only four of us, and a ship that was not _designed_ for extended engagements. Not the kind of knockdown, ship-of-the-line fight we'd be dealing with if we faced them head-on."

"Strange, that you would suddenly caution restraint." Fina mused, poking at the dregs of her bowl. Like she was deciding to go back for a second helping or not. "Isn't Vyse usually the one who holds you back from crazy ideas?"

Aika stared at her. "Maybe we take turns." She suggested. "I can't always be the crazy one."

Fina laughed at that. "True. Whose idea was it to storm a _moving train_ to save me again?"

"Vyse's. Come to think of it, that entire mess of a rescue was his idea." Aika mumbled petulantly. "But I doubt anything else would have worked. He can be a real genius when he has to be."

"He wears the burden of command well." Fina agreed, and the admiration in her voice was absolute. "He is strong and confident when he needs to be. But I imagine there are times he has to balance that with moments of weakness."

"Vyse? Weak?" Aika scoffed at that. "He's never weak."

"He never doubts? Or worries?" Fina asked unsurely. "Even for a moment?"

That made Aika flinch, and she reached for her Loqua, draining the rest in one go. "He...once. Once, he did. Right before we left to rescue you, and our Blue Rogue family."

Fina looked at her, measuring her somehow. "And you saved him."

"Of course I did." The redhead declared haughtily. "I'm his best friend. I'm his First Mate. I'm…" And there, she stuttered on the last part. _I'm his. And he's mine._

Fina misread the silence. "He's lucky to have you as a friend." The Silvite complimented her. "I know I'm glad to have you as one."

"Thanks." Aika shifted. "And thank you for finishing the cooking."

"It was my pleasure." Fina collected up the dishes and took them over to the kitchen washtub to be cleaned. "You're looking much better. I like it when you leave your hair down like that."

"Well, it's hard to fight with it when it's not tied up." Aika joked. "Truth be told, I've had half a mind to cut it short."

"No!" Fina all but shouted, whirling around with wide eyes. "You shouldn't do that. Your hair is lovely when it's like this. It would take forever to grow it back out again."

Aika blinked at the startling rebuke. "Well, your hair is long, and you manage."

Fina pouted a little and went for another bowl, dipping up a third helping of stew. "Yours is longer."

_She's jealous_, Aika realized, and her hand went to her hair, running through the long red tresses. "Well...I guess I won't cut it then." She resolved.

"Good." Fina smiled. "Would you mind cleaning up the dishes? I was going to take Vyse a bowl of stew and say goodnight."

"Oh, I can do that." Aika suddenly cut in. Fina blinked.

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, yeah." Aika gave her a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. "Been a long day. I'll take care of the dishes when I get back, get 'em all done at once."

"But, your clothes…"

"We'll wash 'em tomorrow before we take off. We'll have time." Aika said confidently, taking the bowl from Fina and heading for the door. "It's okay to take a night off every once in a while."

"Well, all right." Fina still seemed a little unsure, but she conceded the lead to Aika. "See you when you get back?"

"You don't have to wait up for me." Aika told Fina, feeling a pulse of warmth run through her. _If this goes right, you won't be seeing me again tonight at all._

Fina nodded again, and Aika left. She was done meandering. It was time to make a move.

* * *

Vyse had been assigned a bunk in the soldier's lodge, but he came out quickly when Aika knocked on the door and called inside with a hushed whisper. She slid the bowl of stew into his hands and thrilled to see the grateful smile he gave her in return. A bit of loud laughter from inside made him wince and shut the door behind him, leaving them out in the night air. It was cooler than it had been with the sun up, but the moisture in the air and the clouds had trapped much of the heat of the day. It was warm enough that Aika didn't shiver in her robe, and Vyse still had a faint sheen of sweat clinging just beneath his hairline.

"Too noisy in there." He decided.

"So, why don't we go for a walk?" Aika asked innocently, pulling her arms behind her back and rocking back and forth on her bare feet. The movement drew his eyes down, and there was a momentary thrill when she felt the heat of his gaze run across her throat before settling on her ankles. "I think I saw a good place to sit a ways off over there." She gestured.

"By all means, lead on." He said, already digging into the stew with vigor. Well. There was a compliment to her cooking skills...as well as Fina's.

Meandering through the jungle of the small island, they reached the small clearing with a few medium-sized boulders strewn about. A break in the tree cover revealed a night sky blemished by only faint traces of clouds, and the faint gleam of the green moon with the points of starlight shining through the soft emerald haze.

"This is good stew."

"Glad you think so. Fina and I made it together."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow at that, and she blushed a little before reaching over and shoving him lightly in the arm, not hard enough to make him spill any.

"I'll have you know we get along fine now. I started it, and she finished it."

"My compliments to both of you then." Vyse chuckled.

Aika guided them over to one of the boulders which was at just the right height to lean against, and also hop up on if the need to sit became too great. Vyse kept shoveling his dinner away, which gave Aika plenty of time to consider her options. She wanted to approach this right.

She wanted to leave no room for misinterpretation. He'd always been clueless before, after all. And finally, _finally_, she was alone with him. She'd tricked Fina into giving her this chance.

Moons, had the other girl been planning to do the same thing?

"You're thinking too hard." Vyse said, snapping her out of the wild spin her thoughts were in. "I can see the smoke coming out of your ears."

"Well." Aika puffed her cheeks out, blushing a bit at the gentle barb. "I've had a lot to think about. We all have a lot to think about."

"Tomorrow, you mean." Vyse murmured.

"It's not going to be easy, you know." Aika pointed out, folding her arms over her chest, reveling in the feel of her robe's long green sleeves against her bare arms. She was all too conscious of how she had just the simplest of undergarments on underneath it. It made her feel...braver. "I can only imagine the kind of defenses they'd have to keep the workers trapped inside."

"Well, something else to consider." Vyse mused. "I've been thinking about it myself. Down here, in Ixa'taka, have the Valuans really had anyone that could stand up to them? Give them a decent fight?"

Aika thought about for a bit. "No." She decided. "They haven't."

"Exactly." Vyse went on, a little sad at that fact. "But that means, they've gotten lazy. And lazy Valuans…"

"...are easy pickings for Blue Rogues." Aika finished, grinning as she caught on. "Damn. They won't be expecting it. Just so long as we can get past their patrols."

"Refuge in audacity." Vyse looked as though he would be strutting, were he not leaned up against a rock. He spooned up the last of the stew, swallowed it back with a satisfied hum, and then set the bowl aside. "Moons. You know, there are times I have to pinch myself?"

"Why?"

"Because of where we are. Of what we're doing. And who we're with." He laughed heartily at that. "Three months ago, Aika, we were still just crewmembers on the _Albatross_. And now?" He shook his head. "It's a whole new world."

"Hm." Aika took a step closer to him, drew in a breath, and leaned against him. It felt natural, and he didn't resist. They'd always had this closeness. "You did say you wanted to see the world."

"Yeah, but like _this?"_ Vyse waved an arm out in front of him. "It's crazy."

"You have to be a _little_ crazy to be a Blue Rogue." Aika reminded him. "Or at least, you always said that."

"Just to drive my dad nuts." He sighed. "But. I'm beginning to think that there's truth in it."

Her head against his arm, Aika realized that he was tense. Far too tense, because he usually relaxed when she leaned into him.

"You're worried, though." She murmured.

"Of course I'm worried. It's still a gamble. It's _always_ a gamble. Risking my life? Fine. But I'm risking yours, and Fina's. And even Drachma's, come to think of it. So, yeah. Refuge in audacity? Sure. But beyond that, we have to be careful. I have to be careful."

Aika felt a hitch of something catch in her chest. It was all suddenly too real. What Fina had asked her, just minutes before. And her answer, and Fina's response.

_He's lucky to have you as his friend._

But it wasn't enough anymore.

"A night like this, Vyse...worrying about tomorrow, you worry about regrets at all?" She inquired, voice softer than she'd been all day.

"Some." He admitted. "It's why I try to live every day to the fullest."

"Because it might be your last." She licked her lips, felt her heart thrum.

"Blue Rogues fly free." He tilted his head up towards the heavens, staring at the stars.

He wasn't paying attention to her. It was all the opportunity she needed. She spun around, pressed against him. Wrapped her arms around his head and pulled it to her. He froze solid, his eyes went wide.

"Aika, what the hell..." He started to rasp.

Aika smirked at him, leaned her face in closer, and watched the flecks in his irises reflect the green moonlight. "I don't want any regrets either."

Before he could stutter a refusal, she pulled his face to hers and kissed him hard. Unpracticed, inexperienced, she worked her lips against his until he finally gave in, groaned, and parted his lips.

The feel of his tongue darting into her mouth made her blood burn, and for a need of something to grab on to, her fingers clawed at his back. He wrapped her body in his arms and spun them around, smashing her into the rock that he had been leaning against only moments before. When he pulled away from her mouth and took his lips and his teeth to her neck, Aika's brain melted to mush. She heard herself moan as she clutched a hand to the back of his head, pulling him closer.

"Yes...Moons, Vyse, _yes_…"

He pressed his thighs against hers, pinning her to the rock, and instinct made her bring up a long and shapely leg, rubbing it frantically against his. His hands sought the collar of her robe, pulling the edges away to expose more of her shoulders, and the freckled skin above her breasts. His hot mouth went from her neck, tracing a line of kisses along her clavicle to the curve of her right shoulder.

It was everything she thought she had wanted. She was a fool. She wanted _more_. An ache that had never felt so pure, so _right_, burned in her center, and gasping for air, his name on her lips, she ground her hips into his.

The kisses stopped, and Vyse, marvelous, _wonderful man_ that he was, went as stiff as the hardness in his trousers she had been grinding against.

He pulled away from her, fast, too fast for her to react, and she fell to the ground in a heap with a cry, disheveled, flushed, her lips bruised.

"Ow." She moaned, and from pain this time. She rubbed at the back of her head with her eyes shut, where the rock had struck it during her collapse. "Vyse, what the hell was that for? Why did you stop?!"

He didn't say anything, but she could hear the hard panting coming from him. She finally rubbed enough of the pain away that she could crack her eyes open.

He stood there, pale as a sheet and mortified. Ashamed.

"This...I shouldn't have...we…" He said hoarsely, and she realized that he was not looking at her face, but down at her body. She looked down and realized that he could see the top of one breast, just covered enough by her robe to hide its peak.

It should have felt wonderful to have his eyes roaming her body. It was what she had wanted. His eyes, his hands, his wonderful mouth…

But the haunted look on his face tainted it all, and she felt nothing but embarrassment, slowly slipping the collar of her robe back into place. She looked up at him.

Vyse had closed his eyes, and now he ran a hand through his messy brown hair. "This was a mistake." He muttered. "I can't do this. We shouldn't do this."

It hurt more than she could put words to.

"I'm a _mistake_?" She echoed hollowly.

"I shouldn't have kissed you." He muttered. He was looking anywhere but her now, his eyes both exhausted and wildly dancing about.

Aika pulled herself up to her feet, trying not to cry. She wouldn't cry. "No regrets, Vyse. And I lo…"

"_Stop_." He cut her off, hissing the word. "Stop_._ Don't...don't say that."

She wouldn't cry. "But I do."

He looked miserable. Good. Served the bastard right. "I know you do." He admitted to her, sounding even worse. "I've known for a while."

"All this time, you...you _knew_?" She demanded, and the world went blurry. "But why did you never…"

"Because it wouldn't be fair!"

She should have just run off. Moons, she really was a masochist, because she stayed. Lead in her feet, a stone in her chest, her blood frozen, she stayed. Her vision got even blurrier. "Fair to_ who_, Vyse?" Aika choked out. _"Fair. To. __**Who?**__"_

She refused to bring a hand to her eyes, blurry as they were. She wasn't crying. She wasn't.

Vyse sucked in air with a shaky, ragged inhale, worked up enough strength to stand tall. And he finally met her eyes.

"You know who, Aika." He said, without any quaver whatsoever.

The rest of the world slipped away from Aika. The bottom dropped out of her stomach, and she chuffed softly. She might have smiled, she thought. It didn't feel like a smile, though.

"You really are a _pirate_." She hissed, and ran from the clearing as fast as she could in a robe not meant for running.

He didn't even call out after her.

* * *

She pulled the door to the guest longhouse open so fast that it slammed into the outer wall with a bang, and inside, Fina let out a cry of dismay. Aika couldn't work up the nerve to give a damn. One look at the blonde-haired girl instantly had her running from grief to rage.

Fina, sitting up in her bed, had a hand pressed over her heart. "Moons, Aika, you scared…What happened?" She threw the covers back and stood up.

Blind fury, burning jealousy. Aika clenched her jaw. "Nothing happened." She walked on, storming for the bathroom.

Fina scowled and came after her. "Something happened. You're crying, your hair is a mess, there are grass stains on your robe."

"Leave it alone, _Princess_." Aika snarled.

Not that Fina ever did. She reached her hands out, and grabbed hold of Aika's arm before she could cross into the threshold of the bathroom. "Aika, please! Tell me what's wrong, let me help…"

Aika heard a scream, and when she came to a second later, she realized it was her own. Lying on the floor beneath her with wide eyes and a hurt expression, Fina had a hand pressed to her cheek, and underneath it, the skin was quickly turning a bright red. Aika couldn't place the cause until she felt her palm throbbing.

She had hit her. She had hit Fina, and she didn't know whether to feel guilty or fulfilled.

"Just leave me _alone!_" Aika shrieked, and dove into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. Chest heaving, she crumpled on the floor next to her soiled clothes and finally stopped lying to herself.

She was crying. After she'd gotten enough out that she just felt empty and raw instead of agonized, Aika wiped her tears away and reached for her clothes. The bathwater was still there, and with another low-grade Pyri spell, she heated the water enough to start cleaning them.

Thirty minutes later, her clothes and the stupid green robe hanging up to dry, Aika finally cracked the door to the rest of the longhouse open and looked around. It was completely dark, and Fina had retreated to her bed.

No movement, and no noise. Stuck with nothing but her panties and her chest wrap, Aika mutely went to her own bed, slipped under the covers, and tried to think about anything else except Vyse, or the ache that would never go away.

Twenty minutes of sleepless tossing and turning later, she heard the creak of footsteps in the longhouse, and felt the presence of Fina come up behind her. The covers were lifted, and the Silvite slipped in behind her.

Aika felt her eyes tear up all over again, and wondered how she still had them to spare. She was shaking too, until Fina's arms wrapped around her body, and the girl's forehead rested against her naked back.

Vyse had chosen Fina, and Aika had made an utter fool of herself.

_You were wrong, Carol. I shouldn't have tried at all._

"What happened?" Fina's breathy voice, concerned, worried, asked from behind her.

She had stolen Aika's best friend away from her. She shouldn't have cared what happened to Aika. But Fina did, and it broke Aika's heart clean through.

Aika couldn't hate Fina, much as she wanted to. Because she still needed this.

"Aika." Fina's hands came to rest over her bare stomach, pulling her close. Unconsciously, one of the girl's fingers sought out her navel, as if to anchor her in place. "Please. Please tell me."

A single sob broke the silence as Aika shivered in Fina's arms, cradled from behind.

"He didn't want me." Aika mourned, too tired to hide. Too tired to care just how pathetic she sounded. "He didn't want me."

Fina's arms tightened around her, and though the Silvite never said another word, Aika could feel her voice all the same through her body language.

She was sorry.


	12. Sailor's Liberty

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Twelve: Sailor's Liberty**

* * *

_68 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Moonstone Mine, Southern Ixa'taka_

Centime wasn't really a fan of nicknames, but at least the Valuan Admiralty had seen fit to give him one that wasn't too outlandish. 'The Tinker' didn't inspire fear and he preferred it that way. It was likely the main reason that his family had been spared when the Valuans stormed Horteka's outskirts and found him; he was an engineer and former machinist's mate first, and a captain a distant second. A captain third if he included being a foster father on the list. De Loco had no need of his talents; the unhinged inventor was notorious for designing and planning alone, relying on journals and second-hand accounts when his own genius didn't suffice.

On the plus side, it meant that Centime wasn't being hounded to design and manufacture anything that would help solidify the Valuan's control over the local population. Boredom was a cheap price to pay for not being used as a weapon for the enemy.

Reclining on the lone cot in his room and doing his level best to ignore the chain around his ankle, Centime ran through the machinist's tables for the fourth time and planned out fixes to his storm-beaten ship back in Horteka. Even if he never got the chance to manage it, he could at least hope that Hans would figure out a way to make the necessary repairs and give the rest of his family a fighting chance at escaping the Valuans. Maybe they'd even take some of the Ixa'takans with them, get the natives clear of the empire's unceasing expansion.

He paused in his mental mapping of the _Iron Side_'s engine when he heard footsteps outside of his door. Centime glanced at his mechanical chronometer, one of the few things that the Valuans had allowed him to keep, and frowned. It wasn't time for a shift change, and lunch had been two hours ago; far too soon for dinner. Some kind of trouble, then, something that they were coming to drag him off for interrogation again. With luck, they'd be a little gentler on his poor bruised stomach.

When the door flung open, though, it wasn't Valuan guards who came wandering in. Instead, a boy on the cusp of adulthood with a wild mop of brown hair, a scar on his left cheek and a telescopic goggle lens over his right eye stepped inside with cutlasses raised. A half second behind him, a girl who kept her red hair bound in a pair of high pigtails followed in step with a leather glove clutching a moonstone-cored boomerang, its edge honed to worrying sharpness.

"You two seem a little young to be guards." Centime ventured cautiously, not sure if they were here to free him or kill him.

The young man looked around the small prison cell for another half second before meeting Centime's eyes, and his warlike posture relaxed. "We're not guards, we're Blue Rogues." Centime blinked in surprise as the youth stowed his sabers. "The name's Vyse. This is Aika, my First Mate."

"A...well. I didn't expect to meet Blue Rogues here." Centime recovered after a pause. "Did my wife send you?"

"That would depend on who your wife is." Aika said, coming over and examining the chain around his ankle.

Centime sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the chain taut. "Carol." He smiled. "Who I hope is doing well in my absence."

A flash of recognition passed over Aika's eyes, and she glanced back to Vyse, who nodded.

"You'd be Centime, then." Vyse declared, looking to the door as a heavyset older man with a thick shoulder-mounted prosthetic poked his head in.

"Time's wasting, boy. We need to move."

"On it, Drachma. You and Fina keep an eye on the other prisoners we freed." Vyse gestured to Aika, who brought her boomerang down and sliced clean through the thick iron chain with its burning edge. Vyse came over and extended a hand, helping Centime stand. "We don't have a lot of time, and a good portion of this escape we're making up as we go along. We're looking for the high priest of Ixa'taka, a man named Isapa."

Centime stretched out his legs for a bit before adjusting his glasses. "I've heard of him." The middle-aged Blue Rogue said. "But I haven't seen him. I think the Valuans are keeping him on a different level of this facility."

Vyse winced. "Not good. Sticking to the indirect routes has led us into way too many of De Loco's traps."

"If I had my tools, I could probably jury-rig the elevator to take you wherever you wanted to go, and gremlin up their traps a bit. But they confiscated my toolbelt when I was arrested."

Aika let out a low chuckle, and produced a small multitool from her own sack. "What can you do with this?"

Centime took it from the redhead, examined all of its bobs and pieces, and felt a particularly wicked smile come to his face.

"I can cause more damage than a battleship."

* * *

Step one, of course, was jiggering up the elevator to work without the mechanical passkeys that the Valuan guards were issued. To Centime's tremendous joy, the electronic locking mechanism may have been complex on the surface if he had tried to lockpick it normally, but was rudimentary and simple underneath. He listened to Vyse explain their overall mission and reason for braving the Southern Ocean crossing, and tried not to panic too much. Focusing on the job helped to keep him calm when the young man started talking about Moon Crystals, Gigas, and the new and unsettling phase of Valua's expansion. Four screws was all it took to get underneath the panel and start crossing the wires underneath.

"I get the feeling that De Loco is more of an idiot savant than a true genius." Centime wagered aloud for the benefit of the Blue Rogues escorting the rescued Ixa'takans, all of who stood back a respectful distance while he worked. "This passkey system? It would require an entirely new generation of lockpicking tools to muster appropriately. But peel off the cover, and a first year Valuan mechanic can break this."

"This is nothing. You should have seen how we got past his traps earlier." Aika smirked.

"Oh? Just as easily broken?"

"No, even worse." Fina, the blonde-haired girl in their company, piped up. "Trap doors, sure, but he used wire grating with them. You looked through, and you could see which paths had mine carts underneath them and which one didn't."

Centime snorted at that and stripped a few wires, using his gloved fingertips to twist them together to short-circuit the system. "One of these things is not like the other, indeed." A green light flickered on, and he got to work on another set of wires. "So, Vyse. I don't think I've ever heard of you before."

"You might have heard of my father." Vyse explained. "I'm the son of Dyne, 'The Blue Storm' as the piracy board calls him."

Centime's steady work stuttered out for a half second, and he got back to work with a cough. "Yes, I've heard of him. I'd heard he had a son, but we ran in very different circles. I think it's been about 15 or 16 years since I last had the pleasure of Dyne's company."

"Wow, that means you knew the captain back when he was young!" Aika said excitedly. Centime chuckled at her eagerness. "What was he like back then?"

"Full of fire and anger, but always directed towards the Valuan leadership." Centime said. "To those who flew under him, to the innocents, he was respectful and a model officer."

One last twist of wires, and the elevator sprang to life, the passkey system now thoroughly bypassed. Centime stood back up with a sigh of satisfaction and pocketed the multitool. "There we go. My thanks for the use of your gear, First Mate Aika. Mind if I hang on to this?"

"You have plans for it?" Aika asked. Centime nodded, and motioned for the interior of the elevator.

"There's a map of the mine's interior inside the lift. You should be able to use that to figure out where this priest of yours is being held. As for me, I'll get these Ixa'takans clear of the mine, then I'm going to take a little detour and mess up as much of De Loco's traps as I possibly can." Aika looked ready to argue the point, but Centime cut her off with a shake of his head. "Look, this is one time it's better to split up. Like Vyse said, we're on a clock here, and if this priest of yours is as important to finding Rixis so you can keep the next crystal out of the Admiralty's hands, divide and conquer is our best bet." He stepped clear and smiled at them. "Don't worry about us. I have a feeling that the guards will be too busy chasing after you to pay much attention to what me and the Ixa'takans are doing."

"Sound enough logic. Let's go, then." The older Drachma huffed, moving past the children. Fina followed him right after, and Aika joined them on the lift next. Vyse lingered in the corridor however, sizing up Centime. The older Blue Rogue raised an eyebrow over the rim of his glasses.

"Did you need something else, Vyse?"

"Just...something you said." Vyse ventured cautiously. "You called my father an officer. But Blue Rogues really don't use ranks."

"Blue Rogues don't have ranks, true, just positions." Centime said, wondering what was concerning to Dyne's son.

"So what did you mean?"

"I said what I meant. Dyne was one of the most respectable officers in the Armada before he, myself, and several others left." Centime explained. And then he noticed just how pale Vyse's face got when that tidbit was revealed. "You mean...your father never _told you?_"

"My father is a Blue Rogue." Vyse ground out. "He can't be Valuan."

Centime exhaled. "Not as they are now, no." Vyse looked ready to keep arguing, so Centime forestalled it by raising his hand. "Time, Vyse. We're running out of time. We'll talk more later, so get going."

Vyse shook his head, but had enough sense to keep to the mission, regardless of the trouble brewing in his heart. And Centime, with years of experience in reading young men, couldn't help but think that Vyse had more on his mind than just his father's previously unknown past. Vyse got onto the lift, the shutters closed, and he and his friends disappeared.

Centime turned back to the other Ixa'takans, and caught sight of a few familiar faces from Horteka. They looked to him with hope and trust, and Centime smiled back at them, brandishing Aika's multitool. "Come on." He told them all. "We're busting out of here."

* * *

_Moonstone Mine Rear Entrance_

It hadn't really been all of that close a thing; Centime had been paraded around the halls enough that he deduced a safe route out for himself and the other prisoners. He didn't even have to tell them to stay quiet more than once. The Valuans had taught them the value of going unseen and unnoticed, and the lesson had clearly been a painful one. Centime had guided them to the path and told them to look for the _Little Jack_ that Drachma had told him about, then gone back inside to mess up as many of the mechanisms as he could possibly get away with.

The result, to his satisfaction, included disabling several lesser traps, but also a major one in a room designed as little more than a deathtrap. When Vyse and the others appeared, they were looking particularly smug...and a rotund Ixa'takan in priestly garb was in their company.

"I'd say you succeeded." Centime ventured with a chuckle. "This must be the Isapa you came to find."

"Unfortunately." Aika grumbled, stomping by and looking ready to kill something. Centime froze up a bit as Fina passed by with an apologetic bow, dragging Isapa behind her. He then looked to Vyse, who sighed and shrugged. "Isapa is...rather forward."

"The man's a lech." Drachma clarified, strolling past. "And he'd better be worth the trouble, boy."

"He will be." Vyse said firmly, then looked to Centime once they were alone. "Sorry. It's been...interesting. Had to deal with Admiral Alfonso again. The man's still a twat, and he still doesn't fight his own battles."

Centime chuckled, and started down the winding path around the back of the mountain, Vyse staying close to his side. "I hate to say it, but his father wasn't much better. So, aside from dealing with the most useless member of the Admiralty, smooth or rough going in there?"

"Smoother than I thought, rougher than I hoped." Vyse explained. "And I could have sworn that there was one trap that should have killed us. It was right after we fought Alfonso's 'pet', it seemed like the ceiling lurched a little."

"It was a drop ceiling. A deathtrap." Centime explained, pulling out Aika's multitool and handing it back to Vyse. "I'm glad to hear that my disrepairs worked out." Vyse accepted the tool with a grin and a chuckle, and pocketed it.

"I guess we owe you one."

"Get me home to my family in Horteka and we'll call it even. Moons only knows what Hans has been doing to my poor ship in my absence."

"Actually, Aika helped him a little bit with repairs...and gave him a list of instructions so he wouldn't goof anything up." Vyse glanced past Drachma and Fina and Isapa, further down the slope, before settling his eyes on Aika at the front. Something close to mixed pride and regret took hold there. "She's something special."

Centime nodded slowly, following his gaze. "I get the feeling that both of them are." He wagered, and felt a slight bit of satisfaction when Vyse flinched a little. "Come on. We shouldn't fall behind." Centime stepped ahead of Vyse, picking up the pace.

"You still haven't explained how you and my father served with the Valuan Armada." Vyse reminded him, trailing behind.

"It's a story that will keep until tonight." Centime said. "Besides, I'll need a few stiff glasses of loqua before I get started."

* * *

_Hortekan Outskirts, Ixa'taka_

_Evening_

The celebration that was spurred on by the return of so many of their friends and family was one that the villagers of Horteka would have a difficult time ever beating out. Maybe when they finally drove the Valuans completely out of their homeland, they'd manage a bigger one. As for Centime, the moment that the _Little Jack_ had moored next to his old ship, he had been the first one off of the modified fishing boat, racing for his beloved Carol's arms. As bonfires went up and music was played in tandem with wild dances, 'The Tinker' settled onto a blanket and caught up with all of his adopted children, while Carol refused to be anywhere else but right by his side. Food was eventually brought out for all to enjoy, and when the sun finally lowered, Centime took on the responsibility of putting their children to bed for the night. Carol was glad for the reprieve, but more importantly, his kids wouldn't have been able to sleep without their recently returned father tucking them in.

The noise from the village was more muffled due to the _Iron Side_ being parked well clear of it, which was good, given how late it was, and how many little ones they needed to keep from waking up again. Centime and Carol had returned to their blanket next to the campfire away from the ship, cuddling while his oldest adopted son Hans smiled at the display and savored his loqua. He was old enough that Carol had finally agreed to Centime's request to let him try the high-alcohol variety that Horteka made.

"It's...different." Hans observed, finishing the glass off and setting it aside. "Though, I'm not sure why everyone makes such a big deal out of it."

Centime chuckled a little, taking note of the redness in his son's cheeks. "It grows on you. Enjoy the evening while you can. Tomorrow, you and I have a lot of work to do on this old ship." Hans grinned in thanks, stood up with a slight wobble, and then took off for Horteka proper to celebrate some more.

The heavy footsteps of Drachma approached them from the village, and the towering form of the old man walked into the glow of the campfire with a small wooden cask of loqua hoisted over his mechanical shoulder. He nodded at them, and Centime waved back. "I thought you would be back at Horteka, celebrating."

"I'm not one for celebrations." Drachma explained gruffly, shifting his head a little to motion at the cask. "This'll be enough for me. And the kids don't need me playin' grandpa."

Centime chuckled at that. "You know, Drachma, I get the feeling that you care more than you like to let on."

The old man's face got redder, and then he snorted and kept on walking. Carol leaned into his side a little more before whispering, "He's nothing but a giant teddy bear, I think."

Centime brought his wife's hand up to his lips and kissed it gently. "I think you're right. But he doesn't like to admit it, either."

She hummed a bit and squeezed his hand again. "So, tell me. What did you think of Vyse and the girls?"

"Capable. Very capable. Although, given that Dyne's his father, I shouldn't be that surprised." Centime looked up at the green moon hanging high in the night sky. "Aika's a bit of a marvel, but she seemed...irritated. At Vyse, specifically. And the other girl, Fina? I've never seen anyone who dressed like she did. They said she was a Silvite. You ever hear of Silvites?"

"No, but then, you knew that." Carol reminded him. "But the silver moon is in Mid-Ocean, right? So she must be from somewhere around there."

"Not too far from Dyne's stomping grounds." Centime mused. "Did they have a fight recently?"

"Who?"

"Vyse and Aika? And maybe Fina, although she seemed to be trying to act as a buffer between them when I was with them in the Moonstone Mine."

Carol thought about it, and then winced. "Oh, no."

"You know something?"

"That girl Aika, she's in love with Vyse."

"Oh? Then why is she suddenly giving him the cold shoulder? And why does he always look so apologetic?"

Carol breathed out slowly, and slumped her head against the side of his neck. "I told her to make her feelings a little more clear to him. He's almost as helplessly obtuse in matters of the heart as you were, love."

"Oh." Centime's face fell. "Oh, no. So she...and he…"

Carol murmured down against his throat. "He must have refused her. Although..."

"For the life of me, I can't understand why." Centime complained. "Aika's good in a fight, she's got enough engineering sense to help our son Hans get his head put on right for engine repairs, and she's rather pretty."

"Hey, now!"

Centime laughed and tilted his head to kiss the top of hers. "You can relax, dear. I'm a taken man. Taken by you."

"And don't you go forgetting it." His wife mumbled, appeased. There was companionable silence for a bit before she spoke up again. "Fina isn't a bad match for him either, though. Vyse is young and bold and full of confidence, but his edges could use smoothing. And she's softspoken, but there's a different kind of strength in her."

"I still think he's wasting his time on her. He should stay with Aika."

"Ultimately, dear, it's none of our business." Carol pointed out.

"But it is theirs." Centime said. "And I hope that, for their sake, and the sake of the world, they find a way to remain friends." His heart sank a little as he dug through old memories. "Because not everyone does."

Carol pulled away from him and examined him with a pained gaze. "They are not like you and the others you knew back then."

"They're close enough." Centime resolved, and his memory traced back to a time when he and Dyne flew under a different banner altogether.

* * *

_69 Days after the Grand Fortress Escape_

The _Little Jack_ had quickly been loaded up and resupplied by the Hortekans, whose gratitude for the actions of their rescuers had led to a completely replenished larder with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables along with the local variety of dried sky sardis, and even a cask of partially fermented loqua that would keep for a few weeks before it went bad. More importantly, their moonstone fuel stores were now fully topped off.

While Aika and Fina worked with Drachma to get the _Little Jack_ ready to cast off, Vyse stayed down at the makeshift dock, bothering Centime one last time before they headed out. Of course, The Tinker had known this talk was coming. It was in fact, overdue.

"So, Isapa. Did he tell you what you needed to know to find Rixis?" Centime asked, weaving around the topic that he knew was eating at Vyse.

"Directions hidden in vague terms and prophecy, but I'm pretty sure that they refer to landmarks. There's a 'golden man' statue up on a cliff we passed by on our way to King Ixa'taka's sanctuary, we just need to find the great bird. Both of them supposedly point towards Rixis, so if you take the two, draw lines out from them, then…"

"Where they cross, you'll find the Gates of Rixis." Centime finished, pleased with his deduction. "You're one hell of an explorer, Vyse."

"Heh. I've always wanted to see what's out there. I'm just taking an unusual method of making it happen." Vyse tapped his foot on the dock, and his smile dropped away. "Now. You have information I want, and there's no better time for it."

Centime sighed. "Very well. Yes. Your father and I served with the Valuan Armada. Of course, this was around 20 years ago. Shortly before the Valuan-Nasrian War. I was an engineer, and Dyne was a second lieutenant. That put him two steps below the captain on his ship, there wasn't a Vice Admiral. There were others, of course, on different ships, but we were all young. We believed in what we were doing."

"How could you believe that serving with _Valua _was a good idea?" Vyse asked flatly. "What the hell was my father thinking?"

"It was a different time, Vyse." Centime cut him off gently. "Before the Emperor died, Teodora was...happier. More content. She had the Prince to take care of, and there was peace. But there were those within Valua who believed that the only means of securing peace and prosperity for the empire was further expansion. Expansion into the rest of Mid-Ocean, and beyond. It was an opinion we didn't agree with. After her husband died, Teodora changed. I've always wondered if the strain of leading the empire was too much for her. Her heart became hard, and _Galcian_ of all people...Galcian became her trusted confidante within the Admiralty. Not Gregorio, who had been her husband's closest friend and ally."

"So Galcian...what? Changed her mind?"

"Hardened her heart, at the very least." Centime shook his head sadly. "After that, Dyne, myself, and the others who found Valua's new expansionist policies and brutal militarism unpalatable left. We mutinied, took over our ships, marooned the Valuan loyalists, and then formed the Blue Rogues. It wasn't easy, there were friends that we had to leave behind...but our honor, our consciences demanded no less."

Vyse stood there, slowly shaking his head, and Centime bit his lip. "Are you all right?"

"It's...a lot to take in." Vyse admitted weakly. "Does that mean that I'm Valuan? That Aika is?"

"No. It means you're a Blue Rogue, son of Dyne." Centime quickly corrected him. "The Blue Rogues are what Valua's navy was _supposed_ to be. Before they got greedy, before they stopped caring." He set a hand on Vyse's shoulder. "Don't feel ashamed of your father. Don't feel guilty about your heritage. The best parts of what Valua once was, we took with us. Strength in the face of adversity. Mercy to the weak. Aid to the needy. Courage under fire."

"Funny." Vyse chuckled. "That sounds an awful lot like the Code of the Blue Rogues."

"As taught by your father, I take it." Centime chuckled. "Let me let you in on a little secret, young Vyse; The Code is important, but it's more of a basic guideline. We all add a little something more to it. As will you. Once you decide what being a Blue Rogue means to you."

"What did it mean to you?" Vyse asked honestly.

Centime gestured his hands around him, and both he and Vyse watched as children, Ixa'takan and Mid-Ocean heritage alike, ran around and played with scattered laughter.

"Giving those who didn't have a family a chance at one. And for your father, it meant standing up to the worst of Valua's aggression regardless of the risk." Behind his glasses, Centime's eyes beamed. "I hope I'm there to see it when you decide what being a Blue Rogue is to you. Because it's going to be something special."

"Why?"

"You were born a Blue Rogue, raised as one." Centime prodded the boy in the chest. "Your generation, you and Aika and even my Hans, will show if our decision from 20 years ago was right. We tried to change Valua. You, though? You're going to change the world."

Vyse stepped back, laughed, and rubbed at the back of his head. "No pressure or anything, right?"

Centime grinned. "After everything else you've done so far, now you're worried?"

"I'm cautious." Vyse said. "Luck runs out eventually."

"You didn't make it this far on luck." Centime said. "Blue Rogues Never Give Up. Remember that."

"Hey, Vyse! Get a move on already, we're wasting daylight!" Aika shouted from the deck of the _Little Jack._ Vyse and Centime glanced up at her, and the older Blue Rogue shrugged.

"You'd better not keep your girl waiting, Vyse."

"She's not my girl." Vyse protested softly.

"Oh, but she is." Centime rebuked him. Vyse snapped his eyes up to him in surprise, and Centime smiled. "No matter what happens, she really is."

"VYSE!"

Caught gobsmacked, Vyse was slow to put himself back together. "I'm coming, geez Aika!" Vyse snapped back at her, groaning afterwards. "She's in a mood today. But she's right. We need to get out to the north end of Ixa'taka and find Rixis before the Valuans do." He shook Centime's hand. "Fair skies, captain."

"And the same to you...Captain Vyse." Centime reciprocated. There was another meaningful nod between them, and then Vyse went running up the dock, leaping onto the deck of the _Little Jack_ right as Aika finished pulling in the mooring lines. Carol came out and joined Centime, and the two waved as a ship holding the cause of freedom against oppression slowly shrank into the horizon.

"Those three are going to be something special." Carol wagered.

"I think you mean, _do_ something special."

"Yes, that too." Carol smiled, and didn't say another word on the subject, regardless of how many looks Centime gave her. It passed quickly, though, as there was suddenly lots to do.

Horteka was alive again.


	13. The Ghosts of Rixis

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Thirteen: The Ghosts of Rixis**

* * *

_The Gates of Rixis_

_North Ixa'taka, Misty Mountains_

_Rixis_

_70 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

As soon as Vyse had fitted the gold and cyan gemstones from the Golden Man and Great Bird Discoveries into the appropriate sockets of the gateway's guardian headstones, the entire clearing started to shudder and shake. It didn't unsettle Fina, because she knew what it was; the central totem rotating on a mechanism that had been sitting dormant for thousands of years in a high humidity environment filled with overgrowth, with absolutely no maintenance. It was a miracle the thing even turned at all after all this time, but the Green Civilization had known their lands well, and knew how to adapt their technology to suit it. A reliance on stone architecture, for one; metal rusted. Glass became brittle over time. But stone, carved with careful respect for the fault lines and treated with impermeability agents, was perfect for the lands under the green moon.

While Vyse took several steps back to get next to Aika and Drachma, the Silvite approached the still turning edifice, and she narrowed her eyes. Rusty at first, but...smoother now. Which was odd. If Rixis hadn't been accessed in a long time, the turntable should have been squealing. It still made plenty of noise, but…

"Fina, get back! It might fall on you!" Vyse shouted out in warning, startling the Silvite and making her lose her train of thought. She scowled and shook her head, whirling about to face him.

"If it hasn't collapsed yet, it's not going to." She pointed out. Damn, and now she couldn't remember what she'd been thinking about. It would probably come back to her later, when she was thinking about something else. Multitasking, after all, was something she'd learned females had more readily than the male gender, and her Silvite education in its complexity had taken that skill steps farther. So long as she wasn't distracted, and unfortunately, Vyse was a particularly impressive distraction.

The central totem finished its rotation, and now a doorway shaped like an open mouth stood where the closed mouth had been before. On the other side, as Fina stepped closer to it, she could make out the beginnings of a long shaft built into the side of the mountain, and at her feet…

_Moons, how I've missed this._ She cracked a wide smile as an antigrav platform lift, ancient in manufacture, caught her attention. The bottom of it glowed a faint blue, one delicate glassteel resonator several iterations less complex than the ones she was used to spinning delicately beneath another carefully bolted into the stone platform.

The others crept up behind her, and Aika tucked her chin onto Fina's shoulder, nervously putting the blonde between herself and the strange mechanism. "What...what is that?" The redhead asked worriedly.

Fina laughed in spite of herself, her relief at seeing familiar, if still horribly outdated technology, grounding her in the midst of their wonder. "Antigrav lift. Don't worry, it's harmless. And remarkably well-preserved, but then the Green Civilization built things to last." She nudged Aika off of her shoulder and stepped onto the platform. "It's also our ride." She said, turning around and facing them.

Aika seemed dubious about it, but Fina did her best to stay encouraging, and she finally got on. Vyse did as well, after tapping the toe of his boot against the platform as if half-expecting it to drop away underneath him.

"The Temple of Pyrynn didn't have anything like this." He muttered.

"Witchcraft." Drachma spat on the ground before joining them on the platform. "I don't trust it."

Fina sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's not witchcraft. It's just technology you don't understand, Drachma. And you've seen actual magic before. _Used it._"

"Still don't trust this." The old man grumbled, and Fina shook her head. A pair of glowing holographic lights appeared in front of them, a down arrow that was dimmed and an up arrow which glowed brighter. She tapped the up arrow, and the images disappeared.

The antigrav lift took them up the side of the mountain, with only a pale sliver of light from below illuminating them.

"I can't see!" Aika cried out, grabbing Fina's arm. She was close to panicking.

"The interior lights didn't survive." Fina sighed, and conjured up a glowing white orb that got Aika to calm down. The smooth, damp-weathered walls of the mountain's interior passed by them, the lift whisper-silent as it took them up high into the air. Beyond, what Fina knew, was the altitude of what the ships of Valua and anything in the Mid-Ocean were capable of reaching. "Don't worry, we'll be fine. The lift is working exactly as intended."

"It's so quiet." Vyse said, almost reverent as his voice echoed in the long, hollow cylinder they were ascending through. "This is weird."

"I've had to rewrite the definition of 'weird' for all the shenanigans you damned kids get me involved in." Drachma grumbled. "You get used to it, boy."

* * *

Fina had studied Rixis when she had been a little girl. She had seen the 'City of Mists' as it had been called in its glory, thanks to old photographs and video clips. A city built on the top of the mountains, above the clouds. Here, the air was thin and cold, and Aika shivered from the altitude. Or she was shivering because of what she'd claimed to see; a ghost. Some kind of spirit from a person who had lived, then died and refused to pass on. Fina had wanted to call her on it, but Aika was already too much of a wreck, still hurting from Vyse's refusal. So Fina played along and kept her silence, mostly because she was reeling herself.

When the mists died down enough for them to see a little further, the rest of the ruins of Rixis had come into focus. It was all moon-blasted, torn apart. Tall stone buildings of two stories or more had been turned into rubble, with maybe three standing walls and the occasional ruined stairway. Enormous craters furrowed the ground, the walls were soot-stained from a hundred ancient fires that must have gone up in the wake of calamity. A calamity that had a name.

"The Rains of Destruction." Vyse said aloud, solemn as they walked through ruins that were silent as a tomb. Ruins that _were_ a tomb. Cloth, bodies, bones were all gone, but Fina could still see the signs of where they had been. Pale outlines around darker scorched stone, rust-red stains that could have only been blood, never to disappear. Rixis was a city above the clouds, after all. There was no rain to wash it away.

"The Rains of Destruction destroyed everything." Fina said with a cold numbness crawling through her body. "At lower altitudes, the forests grew back. Life found a way, it's all covered up. But Rixis, they built above the clouds. They lived here above the rain, above fertile soil, using their technology to sustain life where it shouldn't have been able to flourish. The damage here…" And she swallowed hard as they walked around the edge of another crater that had taken out an entire building, by the debris field blasted away from it. "...It stayed the same. Unchanging, for thousands of years." Cupil shifted out of his wristband form and hovered up next to her, chirping worriedly before she stroked it under the chin.

"Are you going to be okay?" Vyse asked her, his concern apparent. "I...have you been here before?"

"No. But I studied it." She said. Vyse didn't seem convinced, and Fina could almost picture the questions building up in his head. She had to laugh. "Vyse, how _old_ do you think I am?"

"Well, not _that_ old!" The Blue Rogue sputtered, his face going red as he realized that he'd stumbled into a major 'girl mistake.' "I don't think, I mean, but...you _know_ things. Things that we don't."

"Things that the rest of the world forgot. My people didn't." Fina explained. "And how many things about how the world is _now_ do you all have to teach me about?" She looked over to Aika, who was watching her as well. "Things that you were confused about at first, but now, just teach me as a matter of course? Without teasing me, or making fun of me?"

"Well, you're our friend." Vyse explained, a little stiffly. "Why wouldn't we help you?"

Bless him. He said real things, weighted, _true_ things without ever considering them. She smiled even more, went over to his side, and kissed him softly on the cheek. "Thank you. So, yes, I'm going to be all right." She pulled back away from him and looked to the closest crater, letting her smile fade. "But I'm allowed to mourn a little for what Rixis was, and what it is now. This place was supposed to be wonderful at the height of the Green Civilization. Full of people, and laughter, and observatories. They charted the stars from Rixis, and scientists came from all over the world to learn, to teach, to help. And it's all gone now."

She exhaled and looked over to Drachma, who pointedly grunted, said nothing, and kept on trudging through the ruins. Of course he didn't care. What did a bunch of old, dead ruins mean to him, except more trouble, and maybe a payday?

Fina's breath caught when she met Aika's face, the redhead lingering at the back of the procession. Aika's eyes were watering, and her lower lip was quivering. There was pain there...But something else.

Resignation, maybe. Aika wiped at her eyes, looked to Fina, and nodded once before following after Vyse and Drachma. Fina hugged her arms around herself, as an unfamiliar twisting settled into her gut. Guilt?

But then the noises of her comrades began to get quieter as they drifted further ahead of her, and Fina shivered from the weight of the stillness around her. She took one last look around the section of ruins they were in, shook her head, and took off running after the others.

Maybe Aika had been right about there being _ghosts_ here.

* * *

There were other things besides ghosts, though. While the ruins were devoid of everything but the most hardy creatures and decaying totem-shaped sentries, there was one familiar and unwelcome presence which made itself known to them. Drachma hadn't seen the figure before, but then, he hadn't been present when they'd taken on the deadly trap-filled interior of the Temple of Pyrynn. As they scattered after Zivilyn Bane hurled out another sachet of explosive powder towards them, Fina scowled and thought that Drachma would have a tough time ever _not_ remembering the thief afterwards.

"What is _he_ doing here?!" Aika snapped, after the noise and smoke died down. "Didn't we take him down in Pyrynn once already? What's he doing _here_?!" Vyse only waited for the initial blast to clear before he charged back through the cracked doorway of the dilapidated two-story building, cutlasses drawn. Swords met long daggers with broad hilts, and Vyse snarled as his face drew in closer to the mask, goggles, and hood that the thief always wore.

_"Zivilyn Bane is everywhere there are riches to be found." _The master thief hissed, his voice harsh and full of sibillance. He twisted oddly to throw off Vyse's balance, then snapped out a dagger and scored a light gash across Vyse's ribs, tearing the fabric of his favorite coat in the process. Thankfully, Aika was there in a flash to keep Zivilyn from pressing his advantage.

"Guess that means we get to stop you a second time." Vyse snapped, grimacing a little but not reaching for his injury. "But there's something different from the last time we tangled."

_"And what is different from the last time you fought Zivilyn Bane, pirate?"_ The interloper hissed. He was blindsided by the long-distance punch that plowed into his arm and torso from Drachma, who'd faked going into the shadows and let the kids take the brunt of the attention. He started to come up to his feet when an enormous icicle shot up out of the dilapidated floor and nearly skewered him, courtesy of Fina lingering at the rear, conjuring up magic from the purple moon. The treasure hunter flailed back towards a broken wall close to the cliff drop-off, and Vyse finished the job with an angry shout and a sickle of moonstone energy, hurled off of his primary cutlass. The blow, more concussive than cutting, sent the thief flying off the edge and into the mists of oblivion.

"We have more help." Vyse panted, pulling himself back up to standing and wincing as his wound finally spoke to him. He looked over to Drachma. "You all right, old man?"

"So that's Zivilyn Bane." Drachma grunted, moving to the treasure chest that they'd stumbled onto Bane getting ready to pilfer. "Piece of work, that one."

"Having a fourth person does help." Fina pointed out, and went over to Vyse to examine his wound. Her fingers parted the gashed fabric and she hissed a little at the damage, calling on the green moon to impart a small healing glow to her fingers as she ran them over the small cut. "You got lucky. He could have injured you a lot worse."

"If you can't help getting hit, learn how to roll with the attack." Vyse chuckled. "One of dad's combat lessons."

"Dyne uses _pistols_ for a reason, Vyse." Aika pointed out, but her voice didn't have its usual teasing tone, or her combative aggression. She just seemed tired to Fina's ears. "Learning how to take a hit was always a _last desperate measure_." The redhead watched Fina heal Vyse's wound, shook her head, and turned to the chest. A few seconds later, she came up with an ornate golden mask, encrusted with gems. "At least we know why Zivilyn Bane was here. This'll sell for a lot."

"Or, we could _give it back_ to the Ixa'takans." Fina suggested. "Seeing as it is a part of their cultural heritage."

"They might give us a decent reward for it." Vyse said, a half a heartbeat later. "And I'd feel a little bit better afterwards, as opposed to selling it to the sailor's guild." Fina stepped back away from him and smiled warmly at his thinly veiled charity, and started to turn back around.

She froze as her gaze skipped into the distance, deeper into the ruins of Rixis. For a moment, it looked like there was a figure standing amidst the stones, watching them from afar.

Vyse grabbed her shoulder, and shook her gently, breaking her focus. "Fina? Are you all right?"

"I thought I saw…" Fina said, turning to look again and cutting herself off when she saw nothing but empty stone and mists.

"What did you see?" Vyse asked her. Fina looked over to Aika, and the redhead seemed confused for a bit.

"I think Aika was right." The Silvite said slowly. "There's something else here. I thought I saw someone watching us." Vyse's oldest friend perked up at that and shivered a bit. Vyse didn't look entirely convinced, and Drachma was as hard to read as ever, but Fina knew that Aika at least believed her. For a little bit anyways, but then the light faded from Aika's eyes and she pocketed the golden mask, trudging past them all.

"Come on. Let's see if we can't catch up to our spook." The redhead said. Vyse and Drachma were quick to stay on her trail.

Fina was slower to do so.

* * *

One final anti-grav platform lift, one of a working pair, had taken them up even higher. Fina's knowledge of Rixis wasn't thorough, it wasn't like her people had the original blueprints and designs to rely on, but they had been chasing their 'ghost' through a maze at a lower level, splitting up to cut off its retreat until it was finally forced to flee to what they thought was a dead end...at least, up until it had stood on the first of the lifts and soared up into the sky.

Between that and the sound of its footsteps, Fina had confirmed one fact, at least. They weren't dealing with a departed spirit. No, this was a person.

There was someone living in Rixis, and who knew its layout very well.

The lift that _they_ had used came up and actually _cleared_ the low-hanging mists and clouds that were constantly fed by the rainforest. For the first time since they'd wandered into the ruins of the Green Civilization's former capital, they could see the sun, watch the clouds roll below them…

Even wheeze a little bit because of the altitude's thinner air.

"Where is he?" Drachma snarled, hopping off of the lift and reasserting himself on solid ground. "Where's that little _pissant_ what's been giving us the spook treatment?!"

Vyse had his swords drawn, and was breathing slowly and shallowly. "Hard to say." He got out. "Moons, just...how high up are we?"

"Higher than...I think we've ever flown before." Aika qualified, and reached into her pouch to dig out a pressure gauge. She flinched at the reading. "Moonstone engines...can't operate at this altitude."

"So...only one way back down." Vyse put it together, glancing at the other lift floating beside theirs. "And our 'spirit' is up here somewhere."

Fina's eyes were drawn to the only structure of note on the clifftop, a square stone pyramid whose interior was hidden by the height of the steps leading up to it. Unlike the rest of Rixis, though, it seemed relatively untouched.

Like it had been built _after_ the Rains of Destruction had come.

With nowhere else to go, they went up the stairs with slow and steady steps to conserve their air. On reaching the top, though, they came to a dead stop. Or rather, Fina came to a dead stop and the rest found themselves staring in wonder at a mural with a very familiar figure.

Familiar in that it wore the same Silvite veil and ceremonial garb that _she_ wore.

"Fina," Aika said with remarkable calm, "Why is there a person who looks like you on the wall?"

"I don't know." Fina replied, and it took her a moment to catch that there was fear in her voice. But then a horrible screech tore through the thin air, and they all whirled about just in time to see a terrifying bird three times the size of Drachma diving down on them.

They flung themselves to the ground, just avoiding its outstretched talons, but then the thing veered up and began to circle up and around them, too high to be reached by their weapons.

"What the hell is that?!" Aika shrieked, and threw her boomerang in a wide arc at it. The bird merely beat its wings and veered off enough to make the boomerang miss, then spun around and buffeted them with a blast of wind from its powerful wings...followed immediately after by a hail of razor-sharp feathers, as deadly as any storm of arrows.

"Cover!" Vyse shouted, and they all did their best to get behind something before they were pincushioned. Fina stumbled, but Cupil, ever-loyal Cupil manifested off of her wrist and took the form of a circular shield in front of her, absorbing the physical blows of half a dozen razor feathers that would have harmed her severely.

"What are they...feeding these things?!" Vyse hissed, getting back on his feet and staring at the bird, still hovering with impunity well clear of their attacks. Most of them, anyhow. The thing squawked in pain as an explosion of Pyres magic went off right next to it, the flash of fire and the concussion both rattling its feathers. Drachma kept his arm pointed up, and his scowl was on full blast.

"Less talk, more shooting!" The old man ordered, and they all quickly took the cue, conjuring up their own matching blasts. The enormous bird, its head perched off of a long neck, squawked in protest as one Pyres explosion knocked it into a stronger Pyrum thrown by Aika and Fina. The blasts _did_ seem to be having an effect on it, but not enough. Not quickly enough. The thing finally had enough and screamed again, then came down after them in another dive. They dove for cover, but Fina realized too late that it didn't have a direct attack planned. Instead, the thing pulled up short and then _screamed_ at them all in an entirely different way. A way that wasn't just noise, but _resonance_ from within the complex baffles of its lungs and along its extended throat.

A throat that, while ugly from an aerodynamic perspective, did apparently serve a purpose. It was deafening in a way that made Fina's head spin and sent her thoughts reeling…

At least until the enchantments woven into her veiled headdress glimmered to life, and negated the mind-altering effect.

_Which is more important to protect? The body? The mind? Or the soul?_ An old lesson from her childhood, spoken in a rusty and digitized voice sprang to the forefront. _The_ _soul_ was forever the Silvite answer she had been taught, and their magics reflected that.

But Fina, whose talents in magic were also forever tied to the _mind_, had disagreed in silence. So she had trained both, to her tutor's displeasure. It was unseemly for a Silvite priestess, as they had wanted her to be, to spend so much time focusing on the more warlike magics of the other Civilizations. That was what the First was for, what he had trained for. It was what was expected. She trained as a priestess, but in secret? She had learned the art of enchantments, just enough to alter her own headdress.

Just enough to protect her mind, the most precious thing she had. The soul was worthy to protect, but the mind...She needed that to even have a _hope_ of protecting either of the others. A minor, miniscule bit of resistance to the planned course of her life, something none of the Elders had ever known about.

It was what saved her. She lurched to her feet in time to see another salvo of feathers raining down on them, and she dodged behind a pillar. Too late, she realized that her friends, still writhing under the confusion of the bird's unorthodox attack, had not been so lucky. Now they bled from countless small slices and nicks that had gashed limbs and burrowed into the underarmor they all favored. Only Fina, by virtue of her act of rebellion, was free to make a move. And she was angry enough to do so.

"Cupil. Shield." She snapped, and her engineered pet and companion leapt out in front of her, assuming the shape of a round disc again. Cupil wiggled every so often, adjusting his angle to block the errant inbound projectile when the long-necked bird tried to take a potshot at her.

It just made her angrier.

"You have no idea who you're up against." Fina said, using the time Cupil was giving her to focus her spirit energy for what she planned to do. The bird gleamed with the glow of the green moon; life, abundant, ever flourishing, wild. A creature whose bounty and blessing was tied into its physical strength, its resilience, an unbending body.

But a thing that could not bend…

Could _break_.

She reached to the heavens, hand raised to the green moon, and through it, the other five that hovered in orbit above Arcadia. She called on their strength as a priestess of the silver moon, called for the power to petrify her enemies.

Perhaps the bird could sense what was coming. In a panic, it rumbled along its throat and shrieked down another blistering mass of confusing noise. But it was not enough, not now.

Against Fina, not ever.

The air around her seemed to darken slightly, and she found herself illuminated by the glow of a single moonbeam. She gathered that light into her hands, changed it into an ominous black and silver aura, and hurled it towards the massive bird. It screamed under the new attack, but Fina's wager was proven correct. The thing froze up even as it turned and beat its wings to flee, and slowly and steadily, the color drained out of it. The thing ossified in seconds. With no wings beating to sustain its lift, the statue succumbed to gravity and fell back towards the ground. It hit the edge of the steps that had been beneath it and crumbled into loose pieces and a cloud of dust. Fina quickly turned her attention to her friends, dosing each of them with a Curia spell to eliminate the lingering traces of the mind-paralyzing confusion they had been hit with.

"Moons, let's not ever do that again." Aika groaned, rubbing at her forehead. She was thinking clearly again, but there was nothing for the headache but time and rest. She looked ready to say something else, but she went still when she caught sight of the remains of the fell beast. "Fina? Did you do that?"

"I was defending my friends." Fina told her resolutely, offering the redhead a hand to pull her back up. "Now come on. We have a Moon Crystal to find...and I have questions."

* * *

The answers to Fina's questions were more troubling than the questions themselves. She left the search for the Moon Crystal to Vyse and Drachma, while she read the weathered script etched into the stone edifice.

"It's ancient Silvian." She said, dizzy on the truth of it. "Roughly translated..._We, who have come from the temple of the Silver Moon have sealed within the forests after the Rains of Destruction washed away the lands, the unsleeping giant Grendel...And upon his sealing, the Green Crystal was kept within these walls."_

"Wait. So...your people were here?"

"I didn't know they were." Fina told Aika. "There was nothing in the histories I studied that said that my ancestors did anything after the Rains of Destruction but sequester themselves and leave the rest of Arcadia to its fate." And wasn't _that_ an entirely different can of worms? There were Silvites here. Of _course_ there would be. Who else would have had the ability to quell a Gigas when even the Moon-sent Rains of Destruction, a divine judgment against the hubris and greed of the ancient world, had failed in destroying them? And Grendel, for she _had_ studied all of the Gigas prior to her mission, was one of the most erratic and uncontrollable of the mythical engineered war-beasts. But why was their mission of mercy not recorded?

Why was she as surprised learning about it now as all of her Arcadian friends were?

"But that person in the middle there, that _has_ to be a Silvite, Fina. It looks just like your outfit!"

"In the rough details." Fina sighed. "It's a priestess vestment, though, that is clear enough." She brought a hand up and touched her veil. "All the other civilizations were _destroyed_. My people's survived only because we retreated away from Arcadia before the Rains of Destruction fell. That was what spared us from the Moons' divine judgment." But now something was picking at the back of her brain. Something about all of this, about their time in Ixa'taka…

"Your people saved them." Aika pointed out. "From the green Gigas?"

"Grendel." Fina couldn't help the shiver, and she lost what she had been thinking about. "One of the worst of the Gigas, but like Recumen, it was bound to the land. After the Rains came, they would have lost control of it. It would have rampaged and ruined and slaughtered until the Silver Temple priestesses finally showed up to neutralize it."

"It explains why they were so shocked to see you when we got here." Aika said, with a lilt in her voice like she'd finally hit on an explanation. "They asked if you were _Quetya_ when we got here."

And then Fina finally realized what had been dancing in the back of her mind for days. Quetya wasn't a word in Silvian, modern or ancient. But it _was_ a word from the language of the Green Civilization, prior to the rains.

It meant _Silver Angel._

The short, barking laugh Fina let out made Aika jump a little bit, and the Silvite couldn't help but shake her head. "I suppose, to them, my people would have been _Quetya_."

"We've got a problem." Vyse said, speaking up loudly as he and Drachma ambled over to the girls. "We found a recess where the Green Moon Crystal should have been placed, but it wasn't there."

"Recently disturbed, though." Drachma added. "Dust patterns around it says it was there for a long time until...maybe a week at most, ago."

Fina frowned at the news, and then groaned aloud. In the chaos of Quetya, the discovery that her people rendered assistance to the Green Civilization's survivors after the Rains _and didn't keep a record of it_, and fighting off a gigantic bird capable of confusing her friends, she'd temporarily forgotten something very crucial. She looked over her shoulder, staring down the steps towards the platform. Platforms. Both were still there.

And a figure, hiding in the ruins closer to the steps, was bolting right for them.

"Vyse!" She shouted, and the Blue Rogue leapt into action. The 'ghost' took the steps, Vyse slid down the bannister and caught up to him at the bottom, leaping onto the figure in a tackle that stopped the fellow's escape. When the others joined Vyse and the captured ghost at the bottom, the truth of it became all too apparent.

Not a ghost. A priest, going by his ceremonial robes and his totem mask, and the staff he was carrying.

"Where's the Green Moon Crystal?" Vyse demanded, shaking the man. "Damn you, where did you take it?!"

"To...to the king." The priest got out in a strangled, winded voice. "Isapa...Isapa told him of the Moon Crystal. He will...summon the Gigas of legend. The Gigas will drive out the invaders."

"All this time?!" Aika screamed, as red in the face as her hair was. She was good and pissed, but so was Fina. For a different reason. "All this time, you bastards _knew_ where Rixis was? You _knew_ how to get into it?! You _knew_ where the Green Moon Crystal was, and you _lied to us about it_?!"

"We have suffered under the Valuan invaders for years!" The priest protested, whimpering as Drachma leveled his mechanical arm down on the fellow like anyone else would point a gun or an offensive spell. "Isapa learned of the truth of the legends and guided us here, but only _he_ knew the incantation to awaken the great giant of the forest! When he was taken, our hope was lost..."

"Until we showed up." Vyse said, catching on to the reality of their arrival in Ixa'taka. The reality of how they had been _used_ to give the natives a chance at vengeance. "Then we freed Isapa, and he sent us on this...this _wild goose chase_ while…"

And then the cliff, the lands around it, the _entire continent_ began to shake violently. Fina and the others turned around and looked out to the south, where the clouds themselves were swirling around a blinding beam of green light that shot up into the heavens.

Fina's blood went cold. "No. Moons, _**no**_." And then that light died down, and a gargantuan , forest green misshapen figure of a man, twisted and bent with a hollow torso and a head like an automaton's rose up in that light pillar's fading place.

Grendel. And Fina lost her unflappable composure at last.

"You _idiots!_" She heard her voice break over the distant roar of the Gigas, saw every heard turn back towards her in shock. At a different time, in a different place, she would have been ashamed of it. But here, in this moment? She had nothing but endless fury, disappointment, and rage for their shortsightedness.

"Grendel _survived_ the Rains of Destruction!" Fina howled at the still supine priest, who now scooted back away from her as she marched on him. "Your _ancestors_ were left in the smouldering ruins of their empire, a rainforest _cratered_ by the Moons' divine judgment, and Grendel _lived_! He lived, and he rampaged, and he _slaughtered them_! By the time my people, your precious _Quetya_ realized what had happened and came to put him back to sleep, there was _nothing left!_ There was almost _nobody left alive_ who remembered what had been before! Didn't you ever wonder why your people live in huts, with only bare _scraps_ of the technology that the rest of Arcadia takes for granted?"

"We live simple lives! We live in tune with the natural world!"

Fina's arm jerked towards the ruins of Rixis around them, beneath them. "So did they! But Grendel was a _mistake!_ All of the Gigas were! In their haste to gain parity with the other Civilizations, your ancestors forgot what the source of their magic was...Life! Raw, endless, ever-expanding and _wild_ life! You can't _control_ life, it grows wherever it can, and it refuses to bend to any laws or restrictions but its own. The moment they activated Grendel, they were doomed. It was never a guardian, it was a _raging child_ in the body of a giant in a form that brought nothing but **pain**!"

Then Grendel screamed, mindless, full of pain and unintelligible rage. And the priest lying on the ground seemed to finally get it. The man shivered.

"We...we didn't _know_." The man croaked out. "Moons help us, we didn't _know_."

Fina wiped away her angry tears and looked to Vyse, whose face was firmed into a grim line. To Aika, who had pushed away her hurt and her doubt because there were people in trouble and that's what Blue Rogues did. To Drachma, who never said a word that wasn't a complaint, but stayed regardless, the protective grandfather that none of them had ever had, stayed because they wouldn't have been able to do half of the things they did without his support.

"Come on." Fina urged the others, Cupil moving to wrap back around her wrist as she stormed for the anti-grav lifts. "We have a monster to put down before it turns all of Ixa'taka into a field of ash and cinders." And in the distance, the monster called Grendel screamed again.


	14. Things You Just Can't Hide

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Fourteen: Things You Just Can't Hide**

* * *

_Northern Ixa'takan Airspace_

_72 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

There were always things to do, but a lack of energy tended to slow down everything. Stopping Grendel had been…Moons, even the Red Gigas Recumen had been easier than what they'd gone through. There was no _killing_ Grendel. Hearing Fina declare that even the mythical _Rains of Destruction_ hadn't been able to put the beast down had chilled his blood cold. By the time they left Rixis, got to the _Little Jack_ and took to the air, Grendel had wrecked a fair chunk of the Valuan Armada in the green lands, true...But they'd gotten close enough to see De Loco's flagship, _The Chameleon_, unload a powerful energy beam that almost destroyed the small ship that the King had to have been on.

Fina had grown so pale after that, and it wasn't until last night that he'd gotten out the reason _why _from her. De Loco had fired some prototype of a 'Moonstone Cannon', a technology that Fina's people possessed and that she had been sure was beyond the reach of the Empire. But even that powerful weapon hadn't been enough to stop Grendel, who quickly began to rampage indiscriminately once the Green Moon Crystal's control over it went silent.

They almost hadn't survived. If they had been in any other ship aside from the _Little Jack_, a speedy vessel that had been retrofitted to hunt the mother of all Arcwhales, they would have gone down in flames. And even _that_ miracle took Aika and Fina feeding Quika and Increm spells into the ship's moonstone lines without reprieve. In the end, nothing they'd thrown at the green giant had worked. In the end, they had only been able to gash it with the Harpoon Cannon while it was clutching at its head beside a deep crevasse, and trap it in the ground so deeply and so tightly that it had been unable to pull itself back out again.

Silencing it with the Green Moon Crystal in hand had been the easy part after that, and they had _kept it_ afterwards. Isapa had protested, up until Fina _slapped_ the womanizing bastard.

The King, at least, had more sense than to argue with the people who had saved their lives from their own idiocy.

* * *

_The King's Hideout_

_Mid-Morning_

"We owe you a great debt." The king said, as they met in his lodge for the last time. The 20-something man bowed his head a little, clearly humbled after the debacle with Grendel. It mollified Vyse a little, as he was still seething. Both of the girls were glaring daggers at Isapa, who did his best to mask his discomfort under a nervous smile and a jolly laugh. "I had believed that what we did was in the best actions of my people, and my kingdom. But I see now I was wrong. The great giant Grendel should have never been awakened."

"He won't be waking up again." Vyse said, gesturing to Aika, who tapped the octahedral lump of refined Moonstone Crystal in her satchel. Over her back was a brand new boomerang, its spine carved from a splinter of Grendel's flesh that had embedded itself in the _Little Jack's_ decking during the fight's conclusion. "Without the Moon Crystal, he's no different than a lump of misshapen stone."

The king nodded gravely. "I am still somewhat reluctant to let you keep the Moon Crystal. Even if it is not used to unleash Grendel ever again, it is still a treasure of my people, and we have lost too much already."

Fina took a step forward, pulling the attention of the room to her. Even Isapa's smile went somber as he turned to regard her in a new, almost reverent light. Vyse resisted the urge to bite his lip. It seemed that rumors of her people being the 'Quetya' from their ancient myths had spread after the priest they encountered in Rixis had returned. "You _have_ lost much." Fina agreed in a comforting voice. "But the Valuans came for this. They plan to use this Moon Crystal, and all the others scattered around Arcadia, to expand their empire and rule for a thousand years or more. Their ships have fled, for now, in the face of Grendel's rampage, but so long as the Crystal remains in your lands, they will have a reason to return. If you are truly concerned for your _people_ and not just _objects_, then you will let us take this."

"And what will you do with it, young _Quetya_?" Isapa asked, joining the conversation.

"Take it, and all the others, somewhere that the Valuans will never be able to find them." Fina promised. "To my people."

The king nodded slowly at that. "Then that is what shall be." He acknowledged, closing the subject. "I wish we could offer more assistance to you in regards to your ship. I understand that you took some damage."

"Aye." Drachma said. "But we've got contacts around here. There's a Black Marketeer I know not far from your old palace, and there's Centime and his lot back in Horteka if we need an extra set of hands. I don't think that you'd be much help in patching up our battle wounds, and we've got plenty of moonstone fuel. Wouldn't mind a bag of gold, though."

The king smirked. "Our Moon Crystal is not reward enough? It _is_ the most valuable thing in my possession."

Vyse blinked, and looked over to Aika, clearing his throat to get her attention. When she looked at him, Vyse motioned with his head towards her satchel, then to the king. She caught on quick, grinned, and started digging around in it.

"Then maybe, king, we could get a reward for finding a different treasure." Aika said, and produced the golden mask they'd found in the Rixis ruins. And Vyse saw the young king's eyes croggle.

"Is that...Isapa, that…"

"It is, my king." Isapa answered, worn to shock. He took a step forward and accepted the mask with shaky hands, turning it over in his hands. "I have only ever heard of this in our oral legends...the great golden mask, worn by the king during the ceremony of the solar eclipse to beg the Moon to return the sun. But it was lost after the Rains...I had thought it lost forever."

The king stroked his chin thoughtfully. "You found this in Rixis?"

"Had to fight off a treasure hunter for it." Vyse confirmed. "Miserable bastard doesn't know when to stay down."

The king chuckled. "Then how about I reward you with _two_ bags of gold, for returning another treasure of Ixa'taka long thought lost?"

Vyse nodded, feeling triumphant as one of the king's servants opened up a chest behind the throne and produced two heavy sacks from it, which Drachma accepted. "I wouldn't turn it down." The yawn after broke the solemnity, and he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry. Didn't get much sleep last night. Or the night before."

Isapa blinked. "I might be able to help with that, young Vyse." He motioned to one of the lesser priests, who cocked his head behind his mask in a questioning way. Only when Isapa scowled at him did the man scurry off to a backroom, and the sounds of objects being moved about became background noise. "Among our people, there is a plant which produces unique gourds. The seeds within them, when dried and roasted, are used to produce a unique brew we use in ceremonies to gain the strength of the gods."

"Like Paranta Seeds?" Aika asked curiously.

"No, not quite. They do not bestow any _lasting_ effects. But the drink we make by running hot water over the grounds _can_ help us to stay awake through the long rituals and ceremonies we practice." The other priest from the backroom returned with a burlap sack slung over his shoulder, and hoisted it off to Vyse as Isapa handed the mask to the king. "We call it _kafa._ And on behalf of the priests of the green lands, as thanks for the mask and apology for Grendel, I grant you and your friends special dispensation."

"Well, thank you." Vyse said, his nose stinging from the pungent smell of the beans within the sack. "But if this is so special, why didn't Valua steal this as well?"

Isapa shrugged. "I believe that they considered it primitive and barbaric, beneath their refinement. I do not think you would carry the same prejudice as them in this regard."

Drachma snorted once and turned for the door, money in hand. "Aye, he wouldn't. Come on, kids. We've got a man to see about some spare ship parts."

* * *

_Lorenzo's Black Market Ship_

"It's a nice change of pace that you all actually have _money_ to pay me with, instead of bartering with Discovery information." Lorenzo praised them all. "Was a hell of a blowup the other day. The Valuans all pulled up stakes, turned tail, and _ran_. They didn't even bother taking down the Iron Net, they just blew a hole clean through it and went as fast as they could. Not that I blame them; that massive green monster didn't notice me, but if he had, there would have been shit-all I could have done about it."

Drachma savored his glass of rum as they strolled around the ship and Aika put colored markers on the parts that they needed, leaving Vyse to do the talking.

"Not that we don't also have Discovery information, though. So, will we be getting a discount or will you be paying us first before we hand the dough back to you?"

The Valuan black marketeer sniffed once. "Once your mechanic finishes tallying up all the parts and stores you're taking with you, we'll talk shop. In the meantime, what's next for you all?"

"We're headed north." Vyse said. "Fina's got a lead on...something to help us piss off the Valuans even more."

"Most people would give up their right arm to keep from getting their attention, kid." Lorenzo said to Vyse, chuckling loudly. He still smelled like a flophouse, and Vyse instinctively took a step back as his wheezing laugh passed between them. "You're a different sort, though. Must be a Blue Rogue thing. But hey, more power to you, and anything that keeps them on their toes is fine in my book." He tapped his moneypurse hanging off of his belt, right next to an old pistol. "I get more money that way. You must have found that bunch in Horteka, though, since you're not hurting for moonstone fuel anymore."

"We did. Your information panned out." Vyse grinned at him. "So, what's next for Lorenzo then? You going to stick around Ixa'taka for a while? The folks here could probably use the help picking themselves up again after the occupation."

"Do I _look_ like a charity?" Lorenzo deadpanned. "Nah, soon as our business is done, I'm putting this bird in the air and headed for the North Ocean myself. There'll actually be paying customers waiting for me, and I'll have to head off Domingo and let him know that you've exhausted his opportunities here." The black marketeer grinned. "It'll drive him straight up the wall."

"You could go and help out Centime before you take off, at least." Vyse suggested. "He's in need of ship parts too, and it wouldn't do you any good to drag your inventory all the way back to Valuan airspace. At least, not when you couldn't load it up with Ixa'takan goods for trade. Supply and demand, right?"

Lorenzo stared hard at the boy, then offered a single, short nod. "You're going to be one hell of a pirate captain in short order, kid."

"If we don't all get killed first." Drachma saluted him, raising his glass towards Lorenzo.

Lorenzo refilled their glasses, and the old salts clinked cups.

* * *

_Centime's Campground_

_Hortekan Outskirts_

_72 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

"As often as you stop by, Vyse, I may have to start charging a docking fee." Centime joked, as he, Hans, Vyse, and Aika all kept working hard on repairing the _Little Jack_ with the supplies they'd purchased from Lorenzo. "But repairs are free. Still, I am glad you had the parts for this. We're a little short ourselves, and getting the _Iron Clad_ up and running is going to be hard enough without lending you anything."

"Well, you're in luck." Vyse said, grunting as he clamped a section of worn piping down so Aika and Hans could work on sealing it to the next portion with gaskets and solder. "The black marketeer we bumped into, I think I've convinced him to stop by Horteka and sell off what's left of his stock before he sails for the North Ocean."

"We're not exactly flush with gold, you know." Hans pointed out, joining the conversation. "Not like you are, Mr. Vyse."

"You'd be surprised." Vyse replied wryly, managing not to laugh at the formality Hans still had. "Running a long-term resistance effort against the Valuan Empire does tend to lead to empty wallets. I've got it on good authority that he's willing to barter any parts and supplies you might need for Ixa'takan trade goods."

Centime and Hans looked at one another, and then Centime hummed thoughtfully. "Like Loqua, perhaps?"

"Some of the Garpa fruits that grow under the island could work." Hans added.

"For that matter, this could be an opportunity to get the Hortekans to become more independent." Centime went on, now well into a line of thinking. "If we could set it up so that they wouldn't be taken advantage of, and if we could open up a good trade route...Although there's still the problem of getting across the North Ocean. It's Valuan territory, has been for a very long time. It's no wonder that they moved on the Ixa'takans first; with only two ways of getting to the green lands, either through their backyard or across the Southern Ocean, and a population unable to put up a fight?"

Vyse laughed. "It sounds like you're wanting to set yourself up as their defender, Centime."

"I'd settle for being a teacher." Centime said. "They don't need a father, they need a friend, an ally. A mentor."

"Then you'd better make sure that you get your ship up and running as soon as you can." Vyse concluded. "Eventually, we're going to need help in shutting them down."

"Shutting them down?" Centime blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"If what you told me about yourself and...and my father...was accurate, you've been running a guerilla war against the Empire for 20 years." Vyse said determinedly, and the rightness of the words burning in his heart kept him going. He believed in this enough to talk back to a man who might have been an uncle to him, had things been different. "It hasn't worked. Chipping around the edges? It bought you time, but Valua kept on marching along. They invaded Ixa'taka. They _hurt_ these people. There is a _generation_ of children and young adults who don't know anything but warfare and suffering." Vyse jerked his head towards the door. "The Hortekans. The other Ixa'takans. Even Aika and myself; we were _born into this war._ You couldn't finish it."

He stepped back away from the pipe as Aika shuffled around to handle the soldering where he'd been standing. "So. We have to. And we will. The first step? Denying Valua the Moon Crystals. That's our mission, not raiding supply convoys or hitting outposts or spying on ship movements."

"We'll do it, Vyse." Aika said, coming up and looking at the solder through her goggles with a keen eye. "We've got two now. Three more, and Fina will be able to take them back to her people and hide them away." She looked over to Hans. "Okay, cool that off and then let's try a pressure test, make sure we don't have a leak." The redhead smiled as Hans got to work, spraying the weld down with water. "You're a pretty decent mechanic, Hans."

"Well, Centime _is_ my dad, and I've been paying attention to what you've been teaching me, Miss Aika." Hans explained, blushing a little.

"We'd love for you to come with us, you know." Vyse said to the boy a year younger than he was. "It might be a bit crowded for sleeping quarters, but we could use a reliable set of extra hands."

"I...I'd love to." Hans said, flashing a glance to Centime, who looked pained, but understanding. "But I can't leave. Not yet. There's still too many repairs here to do with the _Iron Clad_, and...I'd like to stay and help dad out a little as well with the Ixa'takans first."

"Well." Vyse said, impressed with the boy's motives. "It's an open offer. I mean it. From one Blue Rogue's son to another." He held out his hand. "You'll always have a place with me."

Hans met his hand and shook it firmly. "It'll be a while before you're back this way, I'd imagine. By then? I may be ready to join you." Hans and Vyse smiled at one another for a few seconds, and then the young mechanic turned back to his work. "Now, then. Let's hurry on these repairs so you can be on your way. You've got places to be yet."

* * *

_The Iron Net (Remains Of), Northern Ixa'taka_

_73 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Mid-Afternoon_

The air was thick with moisture and the hazy beginnings of rainclouds, but there was no mistaking the enormous ridgeline that served as the northern border for Ixa'taka, or the break that had once been covered up by an enormous Iron Net, stretched a mile across and five miles high from the ground to highest elevation that airships could reach. The peaks of the mountain ridge, shrouded by the mists, seemed to rise up to eternity.

The air still stank from the exhaust of an unimaginable amount of cannonfire, and the edges of the opening through them were blackened and scattered with bits of netting that had melted into the craters.

Vyse flexed his fingers on the wheel, able to see the damage clearly even inside of the wheelhouse. "The Valuan ships got out of here in a hurry."

Fina was off-duty and Drachma was sleeping until it was his shift at the helm later tonight, so the only company he had in the wheelhouse was Aika. His first mate glanced up from the maps of the North Ocean that Drachma had dug up out of storage and blanched as she saw what had gotten his attention. "Woah. That's...Grendel scared them off, all right. They didn't even bother taking down the net the normal way. They just...blasted it down."

"Considering I had a nightmare last night about that Gigas destroying us, I can't say that I blame them." Vyse grumbled. "Although I would have liked it if they'd stuck around long enough to get beaten up a little bit more first."

"Less of them for us to fight later?" Aika guessed with a smirk. Vyse just smiled in return, and started the _Little Jack_ forward into the gap that would take them from the green lands, and closer to the ominous thundercloud-filled skies of Valua.

"I think we could manage with a little less fighting." Vyse said, once the ship was inside of the long passage along the crevasse. "At least when it comes to the Gigas. Nothing ever good comes from us fighting them."

"I'm not sure we _can_ fight them." Aika admitted. She set the maps down and walked over to stand by the windows next to Vyse, and leaned against the reinforced glass. "I mean, we _nailed_ Recumen with the Harpoon Cannon and the thing just kept on coming. And Grendel barely...We almost…" Vyse looked over to her in concern, wincing as her eyes glazed over.

"Aika." He said, jarring her out of the memory. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just...bad dreams." she muttered, rubbing at her eyes. "I'm half tempted to try some of that _kafa_ that we got from Isapa. Though I'm a little bit wary."

"Because of the smell, or because it came from Isapa?" Vyse asked, and got an honest laugh out of her.

"Honestly? A bit of both." She said, watching as the canyon walls passed by them. They were flying at a slower speed to conserve fuel, and it was almost scenic. "How about you? Any bad dreams?"

Vyse locked his jaw as he heard Grendel's roar pass through him, and shivered a bit when he looked to the new boomerang strapped to Aika's back. Then he shook his head and let it drift away from him. "One or two. I forget about them, though."

"Lucky you." She mumbled. "I'm a little bit nervous about this next leg, though. We're going to be in Valua's _backyard_, if what Drachma said about the North Ocean is true. And it probably is; his maps for the North Ocean are very accurate. At least for the parts closer to Valua. We're going to be in uncharted territory for a while here."

"There's probably a reason for that." Vyse wagered. He'd thought a lot about it for a while, actually. "Think about it. There was an _entire continent_ south of the skies that were uncontested Valuan airspace. They probably put up some kind of military blockade to keep out merchant vessels and curious travelers to make sure Ixa'taka stayed their dirty little secret. Then they put up their Iron Net to make _sure_ of it." A gust of wind caught the side of the ship, and Vyse hitched the wheel a point over to compensate and keep it from drifting. "But that's going to change now."

Aika pulled away from the windows and thought about it. "Lorenzo."

Vyse smiled. "Lorenzo. He got in before they put up the net, and they never caught him. And because he handles Discovery information...the Sailor's Guild is going to know about Ixa'taka."

"Which means everyone's going to know about Ixa'taka." Aika kept the logic running. "And what Valua's been doing to the people here."

"Yeah." Vyse dragged the word out, and he tamped down on the flare of anger that he felt about it all. "And hopefully, they don't decide to try and repeat their mistakes. I think that's why Centime is staying here, more than anything else."

"To protect the Valuans." Aika said. "Code of the Blue Rogues."

"We always help out those in need." Vyse agreed. "But it's more than that."

"Huh?" Aika tilted her head a little. "What then?"

"He said he preferred to be a _mentor_." Vyse said. "What do you think that means?"

Aika thought about that again. "I hate it when you do this." She mumbled. "Answering a question with another question. You're too much like your dad sometimes."

"I never served under a Valuan flag." Vyse growled out, instantly angry, and she took a step back away from him. He masked his face and sighed. "Sorry. It's not...It's something for me and my dad to figure out. Right now, I'm struggling with the dad I knew, and the Dyne that Centime told me about. You don't deserve me taking it out on you." Eyes on the sky ahead of them, Vyse coughed once. "Still. Think we could change the subject to something a little less sore?"

"What else would you want to talk about, Vyse?" Aika asked, folding her arms behind her back and kicking at the deck. He shivered a little at the soft tone she used, and when he looked at her, her eyes were down on the deck.

The conversation could steer so easily into dangerous territory. Neither of them had spoken at all about...Well. When she'd kissed him stupid and he almost…

_Almost_…

Vyse blinked. "Nothing." He got out, in a rough whisper. "Nothing, I guess."

The smile she put on after that shouldn't have looked so _wrong_. It stung at him, and he didn't know why. "I suppose not." She went back to her maps, made a few marks based on their course and airspeed, and rolled them up again. "I'm headed to the lookout's mast. If I see anything weird, I'll signal you."

"Yeah. Thanks, Aika." He muttered, for lack of anything better to say. There was no pat on the shoulder, no Blue Rogue secret handshake, no flirtatious wink.

Something had broken in their relationship, and he wasn't sure how to fix it. He wanted to keep her as a friend, but more and more…

It seemed like they'd tumbled off of a mountain there was no climbing back on.

* * *

_The North Ocean_

_74 Days after the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

Sleep didn't come easy, but he didn't dream of Grendel again, at least. Still, when he dragged himself down to the galley and saw Fina working on breakfast, he was only half-awake.

"You look terrible." The Silvite said as a greeting, setting a plate of cut up fruit and two fried eggs in front of him, along with a mug of low-alcoholic loqua. "Rough night?"

"I've had better." Vyse mumbled, and started in on breakfast. Fina thankfully let him eat in silence, working on the meals for Drachma and Aika. When Vyse finished, he still didn't feel at all functional. His lidded eyes drifted over to the sack of _kafa_ beans, left undisturbed on a shelf which had had a bit of extra room on it. Isapa had said that they could help keep the priests awake during sacred ceremonies.

_What the hell_, he said to himself, and lurched up to retrieve them. "Fina? Could you boil some water for me?"

"What for, Vyse? Did you want some oatmeal, or some tea?"

"Nah, just the water. Thanks." He got down the bag, then reached for a mortar and pestle. Using a pocketknife to open one of the bag's seams a little bit, he poured out a small amount of the _kafa_ beans into the mortar, set the bag aside, and got to work grinding them. The pungent aroma of the ground beans filled the room, and Fina inhaled a deep breath before whirling on him looking almost…

_Predatory_.

"You need to grind more of those." She _growled _out, and a ripple of something passed from his head to his toes.

"I...what?" Vyse stammered faintly. Fina leaned in and sucked in a long, deep breath of air closer to the mortar and to his chest, then reached for the bag and dumped more _kafa_ beans into his bowl.

"Grind. More." She repeated in a curt voice, and added more water to the teakettle.

She confused Vyse most days, but he knew better than to argue with her when she was using her _'I am a powerful and terrible font of endless divine power and wisdom and you will listen to me when I am talking to you' _voice. It had the effect of making him shiver as well as sit up a little straighter.

About five minutes later, the teakettle whistled and she pulled it off the heater, grabbing two large tea mugs as well.

"Tea filter." She snapped, and Vyse raced to oblige her, getting down a hole-filled metal ball with a handle. She stared at it as he handed it to her and scowled. "Cheesecloth." That he found after a bit of digging while she sat down and pulled the mortar over to her, examining his work. "We need a better grinder." She said, more to herself than to him, and Cupil transformed into a pair of scissors that she used to cut a section of cheesecloth just large enough to fit the strainer. Once that was done, she used a spoon to ladle the grounds into the tea filter and then snapped it shut.

She poured hot water into the first mug, then unceremoniously dunked the tea ball into it. And waited.

Tea needed time to steep, so Vyse wasn't too put off as she sat, tapping her foot on the floor and staring at the slowly darkening water. But when she hadn't removed it in four minutes, according to the clock on the galley wall, he coughed to get her attention. "Fina, how long…"

"If we had a proper press, it wouldn't be long at all." She snapped back. "But this is your first cup of coffee, and the first one I've had since I left my home, so you will sit there, wait patiently, and let me make this as correctly as I possibly can with this horribly primitive equipment that's _not designed for this task._"

"Ah." He rubbed the back of his head. "So...coffee? But Isapa called it _kafa._"

"Language drift." Fina waved off the question, and started muttering softly. "I should have remembered. Should have. Native plant to the Green Civilization. Of course it would survive the Rains of Destruction. Of _course_ it would. Didn't catch it until I smelled it. Stupid. Stupid, _stupid_."

She was talking to herself now, never a good sign. When Aika started acting like this, Vyse always started looking for the nearest exit for when something inevitably blew up. Considering that Fina could do about the same thing _with her mind_ when something got her dander up? He kept himself from running.

There wasn't a safe place on board the _Little Jack_ if Fina went crazy. Besides. She was just making a drink.

Finally, she pulled the tea filter out of the steeped water, still steaming, and poured off half of the brimming mug into the other, sliding it over to him. He reached for it tentatively while she brought her own up to her face, closed her eyes, and breathed it in again. Then she took a drink, and let out a lusty sigh of appreciation that sent another ripple down his spine.

"Oh, _hello_. I missed you, old friend." She smiled, her eyes still closed.

Vyse stared at the liquid in his own mug, not sure if he should drink it or stab it with a sword. "So...I Just...drink it."

"You can add milk or sugar if you like. But your first sip? Take it straight." She directed him, looking much more mellow than she had when he came in.

He took a sip and winced. "Ugh, that's bitter." She smiled at him as he set the mug down. "Why would you drink this?"

"Finish that mug off and then ask me that question again in ten minutes." The Silvite said smugly, standing back up with a stretch before she grabbed her mug and went back to the stove, drinking her coffee the entire time. Vyse made another face, but did as she ordered him to, slugging it back quickly to not suffer the taste any longer than he had to.

Five minutes later, when Aika came trudging in, he wasn't sleepy at all. In fact, he was brimming with energy.

"Well, aren't you two chipper today." Aika complained, yawning as she sat down.

Fina set another mug of coffee down in front of the girl along with her breakfast and patted the redhead's arm. "Drink this, Aika. You'll feel better in no time."

Aika took a sip of the coffee without questioning it, and immediately winced and pulled back. "Ugh, that tastes awful!"

"Yeah, but it woke me up." Vyse said with a snort. "It seems Fina's been holding out on us. As soon as she smelled the beans Isapa gave us, she knew exactly what to do with them."

"The name has changed, but they're pretty much the same to the freeze dried grounds we used back home." Fina explained. "I was...very happy to find out I could have more of them again. Apparently they're used in sacred rituals now, but before the Rains, they were one of the Green Civilization's major exports."

"And they could be again." Vyse realized, looking to Fina. "We might be sitting on a good thing, and right now, nobody else knows about it."

"Then keep it that way for as long as you can." Aika mumbled, taking another drink. It perked her up as quickly as it had Fina and Vyse. "Although it's definitely an acquired taste. And you made this, Fina?" When the Silvite nodded, Aika smiled thinly. "So. A priestess _and_ a homemaker. No wonder…" She trailed off after that, and something in her slouched posture made Vyse flinch. Something was wrong, and he couldn't place it. But it was definitely connected to what had happened the day before.

"Are you all right, Aika?" Fina asked, nearly as on the ball as Vyse was in reading Aika's moods.

His most trusted companion, who had stayed by his side through the worst days of his life and the best as well, rocked back and forth a little on her chair a few times before finally nodding to herself.

"I'm fine. Just a lot to do today, is all. Mind's...wandering." She picked up her plate of food and the rest of her coffee, then gave the two a broad smile that never quite reached her eyes. "I've got a bunch of maintenance to do on the moonstone engine, so I'll just eat downstairs."

"But we always eat breakfast together." Fina argued, sounding the worry that got choked in Vyse's throat.

"Well, needs must." Aika laughed weakly. "Besides, it'll give you two a chance to catch up." She gave them a nod, then turned around and walked out of the room.

Fina made a face and looked to Vyse, once she was gone and out of earshot. "Did something happen?" She asked him, and there was a coolness in her gaze that made him hold back the snap answer. The silence gave her enough room to add on to the sentence. "Because you two haven't been yourselves since we left for the Moonstone Mines. You kept looking guilty, like you wanted to apologize for something. And Aika, she's not ignoring you any more, but…"

The Silvite set her mug down, peering at him even harder. "What. _Happened_?"

"We...had a disagreement." He finally said.

Fina kept staring, and he braced for the inevitable question of _'about what?'_ But it never came. Instead, some of the ice in her blue eyes fell away, and then she picked up her mug for another sip. "You should apologize then." She told him, and he knew it wasn't a suggestion, but a command.

* * *

_74 Days after the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

The _Little Jack _had made good time when they left Ixa'taka, as the engine that they'd taken from Admiral Belleza, no longer needing to fight against the Southern Ocean's indomitable currents, made the ship _fly_ when the throttle was opened up. Now it was moored to a larger island in the wilderness of the North Ocean, and a few miles away over their heads, swirling lights danced in the sky as the crew, minus Drachma, sat out on the foredeck and worked at dinner.

Well, Vyse and Fina did. Aika's was largely untouched, while she finished transcribing the three new Discoveries they'd stumbled across.

"The Tricyclone, the Roc's Nest...and now, these Will o' Wisps." She hummed, pulling the quill back and blowing over the paper in the ship's journal. She had left room for the drawings in small boxes, and handed it over to Fina, who summoned up Cupil for the task of making an imprint of what they'd seen. Among the creature's many talents was an ability to become a makeshift rubber stamp, with eerie artistic accuracy. "Arcadia really is a strange place. The next Sailor's Guild we hit is going to _love _us."

"What was it you said back in Ixa'taka, Vyse?" Fina went on, letting Cupil finish up the work of documenting their Discoveries. "Running a resistance leads to empty wallets?"

"Usually." Vyse agreed, biting off another piece of roasted meat from his third skewer. They'd gotten a fair amount of seasonings from the Hortekans before they left, and it made a definite difference in their usual fare of skyfish caught while sailing about. "Did Drachma get anything to eat?"

"He came up for a little bit while you were marking our position on your maps." Fina said. "Took a few skewers and headed back to his room." She paused for a bit. "I got the feeling he wanted to be alone."

"There's probably some history here." Vyse said. And how could there not be? Lorenzo, a black marketeer who knew 'One-Armed Drachma' from his time flying in the North Ocean? The much more accurate maps closer to the Valuan mainland than Vyse had ever seen before?

But if he'd learned one thing about Drachma in the two and a half months that they'd been flying together, it was that the old man didn't like to talk about himself, and he could get _really_ bent out of shape if someone tried to force him into something. So he shrugged and reached for the low-alcoholic loqua. "But it's his business. He's still with us, he just likes his space."

"Well, I can understand that." Aika chuckled some. She finally reached for her own dinner and tore into it. "Remember how happy I was when I was old enough to move back into my parent's house? It's probably the same for him. The _Little Jack_ was his ship for who knows how long, he'd rigged it up so he was the only sailor needed to crew it. Then _we_ show up. He probably misses the quiet."

It was actually a decent observation, and for a bit, she was smiling and looking at him like she used to. And then, like somebody snapped their fingers, Aika looked away and her face dimmed.

Vyse moved his eyes and found himself frozen to the spot, because Fina was staring at him again. Just like she had in the morning. The lump in his throat came back, because she had told him exactly what he needed to do, and he hadn't yet.

_Blue Rogues never give up._

"Aika." Vyse said, finally clearing his throat. "I need to talk to you."

She snapped her head back up and stared at him like a Ferlith in the torchlights. It made him lean back away from her, because it was startling. Aika had never looked at him like that. She'd been angry, or playful, or vibrant. She would yell his head off, or punch him in the shoulder, or sidle in close and tease him. But that was a new one for her.

She was _afraid_ of him. Or afraid of what he was going to say. Both were miserable options.

Fina stood up and smoothed out her Silvite skirt, bowing to them. "In that case, I will leave you two be." She smiled at them, and Vyse gave her a grateful nod. Aika looked like she wanted to grab Fina and hide behind her. But when Fina deftly glided away from her, there was nothing for it.

He sat and watched her as she shifted on the crate she'd been using as a seat, and waited until she didn't look ready to bolt at the next sound.

"So." Aika finally said, mustering a weak smile. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I'm sorry." Vyse said, opening up with what she absolutely needed to hear. She tightened up on hearing it, and there was a moment when he thought she might bolt.

But she just collapsed afterwards, and the tension went with it. Most of the tension, anyways. "For what, Vyse?"

"For...for screwing up." He admitted. And he had. "I should have handled it better. You didn't deserve...what I did to you."

"Oh." She said, and looked away. "You're talking about…"

"I like you." Vyse said. "But...I can't…" He struggled with the words, and she wilted even more under them.

"It's okay, Vyse. I know." Aika replied, finally looking up. She was smiling at him.

"...You know?" Vyse exclaimed, and couldn't help blushing a little. He'd been so careful.

"Of course I do." She said, nodding once. "How long have I known you? You don't think I can see right through you?"

Now it was his turn to let the air out of his lungs. "So you understand."

"The heart wants what the heart wants." She lifted a hand up, waved it around a little bit, and let it drop back to her leg. "It's all right."

"It's just easier, you know, if nothing changes." He went on, rushing a bit. He had to get it all out. "With the mission. Stopping Valua, helping Fina get the Moon Crystals."

"And then after, you'll…"

"I didn't want to hurt you." Vyse said. He met her eyes. "You need to know that. Okay? I screwed up. There are feelings I have that...I just can't act on. Because it isn't fair."

"To her." Aika finished, in a soft, soft voice. She looked away again, and folded her hands together in her lap.

"Exactly." He sighed. He'd finally said it, gotten it out there. It was a weight off of his shoulders. "And...I've missed being able to talk to you. Things have just been _wrong_ between us." He ran a hand through his hair. "Are we still friends?"

Aika still didn't look at him, but she did nod slowly. "Yes, Vyse. We're still friends."

"Good." He got out. "Good."

She finally stood up. "Tomorrow comes early. We're anchored, the engine's running fine, and whatever that coffee did to me this morning has finally worn off. I'm hitting the sack."

"Okay. I'll clean up out here. Night, Aika." He smiled, but she still refused to look at him, and walked by with her head pointed down. It was a little disconcerting, but she'd told him that things were okay. That she was still his friend.

He dismissed the bits of unease still left in him, and cleaned up the remains of dinner with a more relaxed smile. Tomorrow was going to be better. Things were finally going to get back to normal.

* * *

_76 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

His name, as Drachma had explained, was Gordo The Round. He was listed on Valua's bounty board, but he was different from other Black Pirates. Mainly, while his ship _had_ cannons, he never used them. Gordo, and his crew of chef-pirates, always flew alongside their targets for boarding actions.

After all, valuable foodstuffs and drinks could be ruined from ship warfare. It made him the most _unusual_ opponent that Vyse had ever gone up against. The crew in their toques, wielding cast iron skillets, only added to the absurdity.

Not that it made them any less dangerous; ten pounds of cold iron to the face would ruin anyone's day, and they were a bitch to parry. They were more like a hammer than a proper sword the way that they chucked them around, and the best tactic for that was to _freaking dodge._

"Surrender now!" Gordo bellowed, pulling back a heavy chug from the bottle of firewater he was carrying around with him, then spewing it back out over an open flame to send flammable liquid across the foredeck, as well as Drachma and Fina. The Silvite shouted a word to Cupil, who transformed from sword to a broad but thin rectangular shape, blocking the burning liquid from touching either of them. Gordo coughed once, tears in his eyes from the exertion, and shook it off. "Honestly, this is just so wasteful. Just surrender, we're not after your lives! Just your foodstores and whatever money you have. Be reasonable!"

"Reasonable stopped the minute you boarded this ship and declared war on us." Vyse growled out, finally getting past the chef henchman's defenses and grazing a sharp gash across his coat before punching the man square in the jaw with the pommel of his sword. Aika still had her hands busy with her own opponent, as did Drachma and Fina, but they all seemed reasonably able to handle the challenge. He needed to keep Gordo off of them.

Strangely enough, Gordo wasn't completely useless in a fight. His weapon was as unique as those of his underlings, a long, reinforced barbecue fork with a thin moonstone core, but it would have hurt as much as any spear if he nailed Vyse with it. And he moved his bulk fairly well for someone fat enough to get the nickname of 'The Round.'

"If you had been _reasonable_, you would have _asked_ if we had any exotic foods to trade!" Vyse snarled, catching the fork by the tines with his off-hand cutlass and twisting it sharply, almost disarming the man. Instead, Gordo kept his grip on it and danced around with the pull, yanking the fork back and shaking his arm out. "But you didn't, you're just another stinking _Black Pirate_. And you made a mistake today, Gordo...you attacked Blue Rogues." Gordo's eyes went wide, and Vyse allowed himself a grim reaper's smile as he finished charging spirit energy into his blades, and they blazed with blue fire. "You know how Blue Rogues feel about your kind."

"Wuh...wait!" Gordo stammered, backpedaling, but Vyse was on him in a flash, blades slashing away in the flurry of blows that was his patented 'Cutlass Fury' attack. "Wait, please!" He put up his fork, tried to parry the blows, and managed three of them before the fourth, from an odd angle, severed the neck of the barbecue fork just above the handle. "Wait!" Gordo squeaked, and brought up his bottle of liquor to defend himself. It was shorn in half, the rest of the high proof alcohol splashing across the deck at his feet along with the glass while he was left holding the bottle's neck. The next swipe tickled Gordo's jacket and napkin, far too close to his neck for comfort, and Gordo slipped and fell against the deck, his exposed belly jiggling. Vyse was on him in second, one sword pinning his body down by the collar of his jacket, and the other raised high for the mortal strike, and then…

_"I surrender!"_ The black pirate howled, holding his arms up to shield his face. And Vyse stopped his stab as the sounds of battle fell silent around them. Gordo shivered a bit and finally uncovered his eyes once he realized he wasn't going to be run through, though Vyse kept up his glare.

"Tell your men to drop their frying pans." Vyse growled out.

"Do as he says!" Gordo said in a high voice, and the sound of three heavy cast iron skillets hitting the deck made Vyse blink. Knowing Drachma, he'd make Vyse holystone the entire deck again to work out the dents. Vyse spared a glance behind him to make sure that they were well and truly subdued (Aika had the trio of henchmen under boomerang point while Drachma got out a length of rope and began to the process of tying them all up) before he finally pulled his swords away and stood back up to give Gordo some space.

The Black Pirate was still terribly pale, but he rolled over and lurched to his feet with a slow shake of his head. "Unbelievable." He muttered. "Just our luck. We've been getting lazy off of Valuan merchant vessels and fishing boats out here. And I end up attacking a ship full of _Blue Rogues_?"

"Take it as a sign to quit while you're behind." Vyse told him sternly, stowing his blades.

"Seriously, what kind of pirates are you, anyways?" Aika snapped, pulling back once Drachma had Gordo's men trussed up like a harvest roast.

"The odd kind." Drachma spoke up, seeming more like himself now that the threat was dealt with. "Gordo's been a right pain in the ass in these parts for years. O' course, he usually just tied the hooks on and sent one sailor aboard to _inquire_ about foodstuffs." The old man narrowed his one eye at the fat pirate. "He's gotten a little livelier."

"Why." Vyse said, keeping his voice flat. He didn't trust himself to not go after the guy a second time if Gordo twitched wrong, so trying to keep his voice calm was a must. "Why are you doing this?"

"I wish to experience the best cuisine from all over Arcadia. What better way to do that...and get around those pesky import and export fees...than to raid vessels sailing into Valuan skies, and relieve them of their wares?" Gordo declared sheepishly. "It was a sound theory, up until…"

"Until you met someone who could put up a proper challenge." Vyse stared at him for a bit longer, then turned his eyes to Drachma. "You know him pretty well?"

"Well enough." Drachma conceded.

"Has he ever killed anyone?"

"...Not to my knowledge." The old man replied, after thinking about it for a time. "Roughed up some folks, but the bounty's that high because of what he takes, not because o' his methods of doing it."

Vyse nodded once, then whirled on Gordo. "Here's the deal I'm offering you. We turn you loose, you give up piracy. Full stop. Non-negotiable. The only reason I'm making you that offer is because your hands are, comparatively speaking, clean. I hear one word about you causing trouble and stealing stuff again, though, I'm coming back for you, and I'll finish the job." Gordo swallowed and nodded rapidly. "Good."

"Rather agreeable terms." Gordo said, mustering a shaky smile. "Still, I am loathe to discontinue my journey to gastronomic bliss." At Vyse's blank stare, he simplified it. "Better and more delicious food."

"So? Open up a restaurant." Aika cut in brusquely. "Hell, you can still be a _pirate_ about it, but asking people to _bring_ you new and exotic foods so you can buy it from them, cook it, and then sell it back to them at a higher price has got to be easier than racing out and doing boarding actions."

Gordo blinked.

"You never thought of that before, did you?" Vyse uttered, his flat tone failing for one of utter exhaustion. Gordo smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Right. Well, in that case, the next time we check in at the Sailor's Guild, I'm collecting the bounty for kicking your ass. And I _might_ use it to buy a meal off of you. Maybe."

"Something to look forward to, I suppose. It would be good to meet you under more favorable circumstances, Mr…"

"Vyse, captain of the Blue Rogues." Vyse gestured to his companions. "My first mate, Aika, our friend Fina, and owner of the ship you're standing on, Drachma."

Gordo nodded respectfully at each name, but froze up a bit when Drachma's name was dropped. "Wait. Drachma? As in, One-Armed Drachma?"

Vyse's eyes flitted back over to the old man, who drew himself up a little taller and looked to Gordo with flint in his eye. "Aye, that's my nickname. And what of it?"

"Have you been in the North Ocean before?" Gordo went on. Drachma just nodded, and then Gordo exploded. "I knew it! I've heard of you before! You're that sailor who's been chasing after the arcwhale Rhaknam to avenge your son!"

Drachma had been surly and crusty and cautious before, but the mention of that made rage flare over his slowly purpling features. Aika and Fina gasped, and Vyse flinched a little as the old man roared and slammed his mechanical arm into the foremast before he raced to Gordo and picked up the fat fellow by the throat. He effortlessly held Gordo up in the air, snarling at him.

"I don't know what stories you've been hearin', _pirate_, but you'll be keeping them to yourself if you don't want me throwin' you off of my ship and into the abyss." He pulled Gordo's face down closer to his own. "We clear?"

"C..c..crystal." Gordo stammered. Drachma dropped him on the foredeck and took exactly one step back.

"Take your men and get off my ship." Gordo did so as quickly as he could manage, and then Drachma whirled about and glowered at the girls and Vyse. Vyse held off his imminent wrath by holding up a hand.

"Get back belowdecks and prepare to sail, sir?"

It was an unusual way of phrasing it, given that Drachma had been taking orders from Vyse during the entire crossing over the Southern Ocean and in Ixa'taka, but Vyse wasn't willing to poke that bear at the moment.

Drachma had a _son_.

No. Drachma had _had_ a son.

Suddenly, Drachma's obsession with Rhaknam made a hell of a lot more sense, and he knew that Aika would have pestered him to death about it, given half an opportunity. Fina too, probably, although she might be a little more tactful. Right now, Drachma wasn't going to hear a damn word about it, from any of them.

He'd been ready to yell his head off at them, but those calm words, the question of an order that hadn't even been given, cooled him off a bit. Drachma nodded once, growled, and turned to supervise Gordo and his pirates as they scampered for the safety of their own vessel.

Vyse went over to the girls, put a hand on each of their arms, and pulled them behind him.

"Come on." He told them softly.

"But Vyse, he…" Aika started.

"Not now." Vyse cut the redhead off, shaking his head.

* * *

_78 Days after the Grand Fortress Escape_

_North Ocean, Valuan Continental Coastline (Just off of the Lighthouse Ruins Discovery)_

_Evening_

The sailor's journal that Vyse had been keeping was starting to get full; pages dedicated to the Giant's Hammer, the Giant's Throne, and the Lighthouse Ruins had whittled the blank space to less than a dozen free sheets of parchment. Fina sat close to him, enjoying a cup of tea as the sun faded away and left them with the constant dark and lightning-filled stormclouds that Valua was famous for. Their low rumble, far off in the distance, still carried to them.

They were parked on the edge of the enemy's back porch, had avoided two checkpoints with heavily armed warships, and were sitting in the shadow of ruins from a time before the expansion of the Empire. Back before Valua even had an Emperor or Empress, and they'd only had a king.

"O' course, that was a long time ago." Drachma rumbled next to the campfire. He was the closest to the anchored _Little Jack_, but tended the small blaze with practiced ease. "And no jokes about how old I am, boy, I'm in no mood for it. Even an old sailor like me can be bothered to pick up a _history book_ every now and then."

Aika had mellowed out a great deal after the showdown with Gordo and his flunkies, and returned to what was her new baseline. She made conversation with all of them, smiled at the right times, did her duties without complaint.

But the fire he always had associated with her was..._missing._

Vyse watched her for a bit longer as she leaned forward over her legs, staring into the embers, then closed his journal and looked to Drachma. "So. You've flown these skies before, Drachma, you're our best source for intelligence. How much trouble are we in here?"

"Depends on where you're going."

"The Maw of Tartas." Fina said, speaking up after Drachma tilted his head at her. "There weren't any records of my ancestors intervening in the Green Civilization with Grendel, not until we found that shrine above Rixis, but we _did_ have records of what the Silver Civilization did in the lands of the yellow moon. The Gigas was too powerful for them to subdue without the Yellow Moon Crystal, and the Yellow Civilization had _foolishly_ allowed the creature to gain possession of it. In the end, all they could do was place it in a kind of prison, lock it into the caverns deep beneath the surface...and seal it." Fina drew in a deep breath. "I'm not certain how, but if we could find a way to get through the seal my ancestors put over the Maw's entrance, we might be able to take back the Yellow Moon Crystal. And with luck, leave before that Valuans realize we're there."

"There's a lot of wiggle room for things to go _wrong_ in that plan." Drachma pointed out, a doleful and grumpy voice of caution and reason.

"Yes." Vyse conceded. "But, no more than when we snuck into Valua to rescue my father and his crew and Fina. And we managed then. Refuge in audacity, right?"

"So. We sneak around like usual and hope that our luck holds out." Aika summarized.

"Aye. Seems so." Drachma drawled, and stood up from his perch. "I'll be back in a bit. Need some more ale." He grabbed his old tankard and plodded away for the ship's gangplank, leaving Vyse, Fina, and Aika alone.

Vyse chuckled and watched him walk away. "He's something else, our Drachma. I'm glad he's here with us."

"You're glad he let us use his _ship_, is what you mean." Aika pointed out dryly. She got up as well and stretched. "I'm going to turn in, leave you two to it."

The remark made Vyse frown, and while he'd let her slip away in the past, tonight, it chewed at him. "Aika, why don't you stay for a while? Talk with us some more?"

Fina must have picked up on his concern, because she nodded her head. "I would welcome the opportunity to spend a little more time with you outside of ship's duties, Aika."

The redhead smiled again (And he shivered because it just looked _wrong_), then shook her head. "No, that's okay. Tomorrow, maybe. Besides, I'd just be in the way."

"Be in the way of what?" Vyse asked, confused. And Aika stopped walking. "Aika, what would you _be in the way of_ exactly?"

Her face twisted strangely after that. "You know what, Vyse." She eked out, and it was like she was drowning in something.

"I really don't." He said, wondering just what had _happened_ to make her like this.

She turned, faced him squarely. Darkness glimmered in her brown eyes. "I'm your friend." Aika said slowly.

"Yes." Vyse agreed readily, latching onto that truth like a lifeline. "You've been my friend for forever. Since we were little."

"And as your friend, you know I want what's best for you." Aika went on, barely waiting for him to finish. That realization made him panic a little bit more. Whatever she was building up to was something rehearsed. She'd been working on this for a while.

_For days._

"So. As your _friend_, as someone who wants you to be happy, I'm making myself scarce. Okay?"

"But why?" Fina asked, just as lost as Vyse was, but clearly not as afraid of this moment. She hadn't known Aika as long, she didn't know how out of the norm this was. "You don't need to leave, Aika. You're our friend. You belong here with us. You don't have to…"

"Princess? Shut. Up." Aika snapped, and there at last, was the heat and fire under the thin veneer she had tried to erect. Her hands clenched and unclenched, and Vyse could have sworn the very air around them warmed up. All of her offensive spiritual powers were fire-based, and they were flexing right now. Not a good sign. "For once, just _once_, drop the innocent act, say thank you, and let it be."

"Aika, please, calm down…!" Vyse started out, but then she whirled on him, and in the light of the campfire, he could see tears forming in her eyes as she snarled at him.

"_You_ want _me_ to calm down?! After everything we've been through, after you...after you took my heart, and...And _threw it in my face?!_ _And you want me to __**calm down!?**__"_ She shrieked at the end of it, not caring that it was loud enough for the Moons themselves to hear.

She gasped for air as Vyse stared at her in horror.

He choked on the words. "I...we talked about this. I told you…"

She laughed again, the heat gone out of her, and there was nothing left in her but pain, pain and hurt.

"It wouldn't be fair to her. I know. I know, Vyse. I'm your friend, but Fina's something more. I was trying to be supportive about it, you know? Like a _good friend_ would be."

"Aika, that's not…!" Fina started again, coming up to her feet, but Aika whirled on her, full of rage all over again.

"Princess, I swear to the _Moons_ I will _pull your hair out_ if you don't shut up and let me get through this!" The redhead pressed her hands to her head, completely lost in the maelstrom of her mind, and Fina swallowed and kept silent. "Just...It's how it is, all right? I offered myself to you, Vyse, and you didn't want me. And I'm a big enough girl to accept it, okay? Because I'm not...I'm not like _she_ is. I'm not exotic, or delicate, and your mother never praised me like she praised Princess here. My hair's always coarse, it gets split ends from the heat of the engine room, and my face is always smudged with grease and moonstone dust, and I'm not…"

She swallowed the last of the sentence, but Vyse heard it all the same.

_I'm not her._

"You love Fina. It's okay. She's a good match for you." Aika smiled again, and this time it wasn't fake. It showed every crack in her heart, but it was honest, because it said that _even though this is hurting me so much, I'm letting you be happy._ "So that's why I'm leaving, all right? You win, Fina. I'm still his friend. I'm still yours. I'll fight beside you, because I'm a Blue Rogue, and because we can't let Valua win. But you two need time alone to...to be with each other. And to be honest, I can't...I don't want to watch it. It's stupid, and petty, but I'm jealous and I'm hurt and it's taking everything I have to not _cry my eyes out and curl up into a ball_. So let me have a little pride. Don't make me watch you have what I can't have."

Oh. Vyse blinked. And blinked again. He'd gotten it wrong.

He'd gotten it so very wrong, and so had Aika. And Fina, in her own way, had gotten it wrong as well. Aika was rubbed raw, every tattered nerve of her had been exposed. And maybe it would be better to leave it at that. To just...move on. To let her work under that delusion.

But she was Aika, his brave, brave Aika, who had _just thrown herself_ into the fires for his sake, and for Fina's. He was her oldest friend, her captain, her battlemate.

He was a captain, and a Captain of the Blue Rogues did not let his crew suffer. No. The pain was _his_ to bear. She sniffled, wiped at her eyes, and started for the ship's gangplank. Vyse looked up, saw Drachma standing at the top with a fresh tankard of ale in his normal hand, and the eyebrow over his good eye raised high. The expression on the face was the same as always.

Because really, what did Drachma care about who loved who? What did he care about _anything_ that wasn't Rhaknam, and his revenge quest for the death of a son he'd never bothered to tell them about?

Fina was crying now too, her mouth opening and closing like she wanted to say something, but couldn't. Like she was searching for the words that could fix this, but nothing she could say _could_ fix this.

So Vyse did what he should have done weeks ago. What he should have done at the start, after they escaped Valua and started out. He ran ahead of Aika, stood in her path, and gripped her shoulders, holding her as she stammered and yelled at him with her raw voice.

"You're wrong, Aika!" He yelled, needing to get over her volume. She needed to hear this, it couldn't go on.

"Damn it, you stupid bastard, let me go! _Let me Go!_"

"No!" He shook her hard to get her attention. "Damnit, shut up and listen to me! I love you! Okay?! _I love you!_"

She did finally stop wriggling at that. She stared at him with those pain-filled brown eyes of hers, fresh tears down her face. "No, you don't." She said hoarsely. She'd been yelling for too long, and her natural resonance was just _gone_.

"I do." He kept her at arm's length, but he poured his need, the feelings he'd squared away for too long, into his voice. "I love you, Aika."

"You can't love me." She choked out. "You love Fina."

"Yes. I do love Fina." Vyse agreed, because that was true as well. Aika slumped at that, until he shook her to make her look up again. "I love Fina. And I love you."

Aika blinked wildly at that. "But...what?"

"I love both of you." Vyse said, meeting Aika's eyes for a few seconds more before he looked past his oldest friend to the blond girl they'd sailed off the map with, a girl who had her hands pressed to her mouth and was crying in turn.

Vyse shut his eyes after his confession, and felt the weight of a condemned man settle over his shoulders. "That's the problem."


	15. The Sailor, The Whale, and the Spear

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Fifteen: The Sailor, The Whale, and the Spear at Hell's Heart**

* * *

_78 Days after the Grand Fortress Escape_

_North Ocean, Valuan Continental Coastline_

_Evening_

They weren't bad kids, Drachma had to admit. They were just _kids_, technically adults as they'd passed their 16th year and were in their 17th now, but still _kids_ in his eyes. They brought constant headaches, and occasionally there was something interesting that happened which didn't involve life-threatening danger. Traveling all over Arcadia, seeing strange new things, some of which were known and some that weren't, was a unique experience. Being with them had _not_ been a part of his plans, or his routine, or his life, which up until they had stumbled into it, had been an alcohol-fueled vendetta quest.

But mostly, they were Blue Rogues (And a tag-along with some kind of transforming pufferfish) and Blue Rogues _breathed_ trouble.

Not that he cared.

He had to admit, though, that the boy was changing after he rescued them from Recumen and Admiral Belleza. That night, Vyse had all but threatened to cut his balls off and leave him on a deserted island with just enough bread and water to go through the opening stages of _delirium tremens_ before shooting himself in the head. Drachma realized then that while he would never admit that he _cared_ about the kids, he would gladly admit, privately, to himself, in a dark room, that Vyse was turning into a decent man. And a better captain.

During the long voyage across the Southern Ocean, that thought was reaffirmed ten times over.

By the time they reached Ixa'taka, and found a crop of Blue Rogues and orphans already there and surprised to see them, Drachma had finally come to a realization:

_Blue Rogues didn't start trouble, it just always found them._

In so many ways, the three of them were unique and complementary. Vyse only ever lost his swagger and composure in the face of true brutality or when his crew or innocents were in peril. Aika was a hot-blooded spitfire through and through, and shared a bond with Vyse that only time and the fires of combat and mutual triumph could forge. And Fina, the girl that Vyse and Aika had risked certain capture and death to save from the heart of Valua's power, was a living contrast, a blend of them both, a balancing presence. She only fought when she absolutely had to, commanded magics more powerful than even Aika, and when she got _mad_, could pull off workings that would enervate her comrades or leave their enemies withering, depending on what felt more appropriate.

They were a good crew when they were in synch, in spite of the rough patches they'd had early on. But about the time they set out for the Moonstone Mountain to sneak in and retrieve a high priest who could lead them to Rixis for the Green Moon Crystal, something changed.

Something _broke_. Aika went from bouncing between bright and ferocious and shifted straight into a quiet, sullen state that Drachma would have preferred from anyone else as chattery as she was. But on her, knowing her as well as he did? It just didn't fit. Vyse kept looking like he wanted to apologize for something, and Fina, who had forever been at ease around the both of them, looked like she wasn't sure what to do, or what to say to fix it, which was something else that was wrong.

Not that Drachma cared.

Drachma figured there was something screwy going on with the three of them, some kind of fight about who got to be with Vyse. He could see either of the girls going for him, and it looked like Aika had lost out. Given their history, it was a little understandable; she'd been his friend for a long time. Not every man was able to look past friendship to see the potential of something more.

But...whatever was going on with them, it wasn't his business. They were fighting with each other, but it didn't matter. It wasn't affecting their performance as a team in the face of the Valuans or the monsters they stumbled across, so really, what did Drachma care?

He _didn't_ care, he reminded himself as the constant ache in his shoulder joint where his artificial arm was slotted in got worse in the humidity. He hated clouds, and he hated the rain; pressure always made it hurt worse.

The ache always got worse when he got close to Rhaknam.

They got out of the mines, they freed not only the high priest, but Centime the Blue Rogue, and a good many of the Ixa'takan slaves as well, and got clear of the mine before the Valuan patrols around it were any the wiser.

Rixis was a bloody mess, and then finding out that the Ixa'takans had played them for chumps and summoned up a monster that made _Recumen_ look like an innocent was aggravating as hell. Fina took it even harder than he had, but...given what she shared about her people, and what the script in the stone of the ancient shrine atop the cliff said, she had reason to be pissed off.

Through it all, the three kept on fighting. Kept on working. Aika seemed to be returning to her old self; perhaps a little more muted than usual, but she wasn't ignoring Vyse, or glaring at him. So, there was that, at least.

Not that he cared. He _didn't care_.

Up until they got out of Ixa'taka, their course set for the North Ocean, and beyond it, Valua and what fina called the 'Maw of Tartas', where the Yellow Gigas slept...with the Yellow Moon Crystal kept close to it.

Vyse spared Gordo The Round. Gordo realized who Drachma was.

Drachma wished that Vyse had just killed the fat bastard, because the last thing he wanted to be reminded of was why he was out here in the first place.

His shoulder ached, and he drank more than usual that night. And Vyse proved that he was fast growing into a decent man and a better captain, because he didn't force the issue. Kept the girls from forcing it as well. Vyse left it up to Drachma to decide what he would share about his life, and what he wouldn't. Vyse wasn't a bad lad.

Not that he _cared_.

Drachma kept on _not caring_ about the kids and their problems, up until the night that they finally reached the coastline of Valua and made camp in the shadow of an old, abandoned lighthouse. Then, while he was getting back aboard his ship to refill his ale, the kids started arguing.

Well, mostly it was Aika finally losing it and flying off the rail, screaming about how she _got it_, that Vyse _didn't love her_, that he _loved Fina_, and that was _**fine**_, but he needed to give her space because she couldn't handle _watching_ Vyse and Fina getting cuddly together.

Drachma lingered aboard the _Little Jack_ at the rail beside the gangplank, watching with that mix of amusement and exhaustion and irritation that the three kids seemed to constantly inspire in him. She tried to storm off. Vyse grabbed her by the shoulders. They fought some more.

Then Vyse explained that he loved both of them. And that was the problem.

Drachma immediately took a long pull from his mug of ale, groaning inside of his head.

He didn't care, he didn't _care, he didn't care…_

* * *

Vyse let go of Aika's shoulders. She was shaking, Fina was crying, and Vyse, by the hunch of his shoulders, would have much preferred to claw off his own face than keep talking. But something kept the young man going, and Drachma knew what it was.

The burden of leadership.

"I love the both of you. You are the two most important people in my life. But I can't _choose_." Vyse pressed on, and every word came out rough and coarse. "If I picked you, and left Fina out in the cold, how would that be fair to her, when I _know_ how she feels?" Then he looked past Aika to Fina, and Drachma kept on drinking, watching from above. "And if I picked you, Fina, like Aika wants me to, how would that be fair to her?" Fina said nothing, and when Aika started to stammer, Vyse brought his hands back up and cupped her face, pulling it close to his own. Aika shivered, wide-eyed, and if not for the silence of their camp, Drachma might have missed the next line. "And don't you dare tell me you'd be fine with it if I chose Fina and left you to pine over what you couldn't have. You're barely holding yourself together."

He let go of her face, and she stumbled a little before she caught herself, the wind knocked out of her.

"This can't...It can't go on." Vyse breathed, looking at the ground. "What I feel for you two...what you two feel for me, it...it would tear us apart. Slowly, but surely. Picking one of you means losing the other. And I can't do that. I _won't_ do that."

Drachma swallowed down another mouthful of ale. This was better than any book he'd ever read, any play he'd seen. Though he didn't imagine the ending would be a happy one, for any of them. Least of all Vyse, which seemed to be what the Blue Rogue was aiming for.

He was putting his crew and the mission ahead of his own happiness. An admirable trait. Stupid, but admirable.

"So, what are you saying, Vyse?" Aika finally got out. She was still a mess, but she trusted her voice more than Fina did.

The boy had never looked so miserable as he did then, running a hand through his hair.

"I'm saying...what we have now...is all we can have." He concluded. "Three friends, taking a stand against Valua. If I were to try for anything more with _either of you_, it'd be nothing but pain. For all of us."

Aika was finally crying herself, and Drachma exhaled and walked away from the foredeck, stepping into the wheelhouse. He waited in the shadows of it for about thirty seconds before the sound of Vyses' footsteps made him tense up.

Vyse walked past him, a glaze over his face. Drachma spoke up right before he reached the stairs going down belowdecks.

"You look like hell, boy."

Vyse froze, his shoulders rose up. And then he sighed and slumped in on himself. He didn't look back.

"Did I do the right thing, Drachma?" He asked, sounding particularly miserable.

"Ye'll have to be more specific." Drachma said. He wanted Vyse to tear the wound open enough to really scab over.

"Was I going to hurt them no matter what I did?"

"You fell in love with the both of them, boy." Drachma grunted. "Did ye think it would be easy to walk away without breaking their hearts? Or your own?"

The young Blue Rogue, afforded the rank of Captain by his father after the raid on Valua's capital, laughed a little and shook his head.

"No." He admitted. "I was tearing my own heart out, no matter what happened. But I thought...Maybe they could…"

Drachma took another sip of ale, waiting. That was one thing that age, along with his former career as a fisherman, had afforded him; The strength of patience.

Vyse laughed again, sorrowfully. "I asked her if we were still friends. Moons. Aika must hate me now."

Drachma sighed, lifted his mug to his lips and drained the rest in a single go. He walked over and clasped a hand to the boy's shoulder. "You'll all get over it. There's time to patch things up. Now come on. Let's get you a drink. A _decent_ drink."

Vyse reacted, but he was still numb. "I don't drink."

"Tonight, ye do." Drachma groused. "Or at least, ye'll do it if you want a proper night's sleep. You're driving tomorrow, lad. And we need you, and them, alert for tomorrow."

Vyse didn't have enough heart to argue the point, and Drachma guided him down belowdecks with ease. He wasn't the first sailor he'd nursed through heartbreak, after all.

Though, for most of the past fifteen years or so, the only sailor he'd been prescribing alcohol to had been himself.

* * *

_Valuan Mainland_

_79 Days after the Grand Fortress Escape_

Drachma was Valuan, by birth. That didn't mean he considered the capital city home. Valua was a strange beast; there were enormous tracts of the mainland that were absolutely uninhabitable, ruined by pollution from runaway strip mining for the precious metals and moonstones that the land once provided. What arable farmland had once existed when Drachma had been a child was just blasted wasteland now; long, miserable stretches of terrain blasted by storms that the poor air quality had made worse, with the occasional open pit seeped with rusty water or a refinery spitting out smoke in the distance.

Vyse, naturally, was horrified at the sight. Drachma could understand why. Even the girls, who were still shaken and withdrawn themselves after the fight from the night before, looked out of the wheelhouse windows. Fina looked ready to cry all over again.

"I never imagined it could be this bad." The Silvite whispered.

"Why?" Vyse demanded. "Why would the Valuans do this, to their _own country_? To their _own people?_"

Drachma had long ago resigned himself to the realities of an empire spun so far out of control. But then, he had lived a long life, even if it hadn't been a full one. What did he care about the environmental devastation brought on by the recklessness of the Empress and the Admiralty?

"Valua takes what she wants, boy." He said in answer. "And the first people she trampled over were her own."

The thunderclouds cracking above them gave weight to the sting of those words, and Drachma saw Vyse shiver a little. The old sailor chose to ignore it and stared out of the forward windows, frowning a little. "Something's wrong."

"What, Drachma?"

"It shouldn't be this easy." Drachma explained, feeling an itch at the base of his skull that didn't go away when he scratched at it. "There should be more patrols. Even out here in the wastes."

"Why would they patrol out here?" Aika asked, her eyes slipping past Vyse with no hate, but a touch of regret before she settled on Drachma. "You can't get to the capital, those mountains over there are too high. You can't get to the shipyards for the same reason."

"Aye. But there are tunnels through the mountains that run trains. They keep all the refineries out here, especially the forced labor ones." Drachma smirked darkly at that. "If they escape, there's naught out here to keep them alive but poisoned water leeched with metals and grass tainted by corrosive rain." His smile dropped away. "Still. They keep _some_ frigates about regardless, mostly to watch for smugglers."

"So, what do you think it means that they're not around?" Vyse asked after a small pause.

"Nothing good." Drachma concluded, shaking his head. "But for now...it means we'll be able to make good time. Where's this Maw of Tartas anyways, lass?"

"Further east." Fina supplied helpfully. "According to the Silvite records, a great Moonsteel barrier was erected over the entrance after the yellow Gigas was sealed up, to keep anyone still alive on the surface from gaining access to it. After the Rains of Destruction came, it would have been impervious to any attempt of access still available to the survivors on the continent."

Drachma jerked at that, feeling old memories rise to the surface at her words.

"This...Seal…" He muttered. "Shaped like a Pentagram? Yellow? Impervious to the elements?"

Fina swiveled her head towards him. "You've seen it."

"Aye." Drachma muttered. "It's called the Great Seal by the Valuans. And now I know where we're headed." He walked over to the chart table and consulted their course. "Change bearing to course 070, Captain Vyse."

"Aye, sir." Vyse turned the wheel ever so slightly, and the _Little Jack_ turned fast to the new heading.

* * *

_The Great Seal_

_80 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Mid-Morning_

It truly was an impressive structure; As they strolled across its surface, the _Little Jack_ parked a mile away and hidden behind a rock formation, Drachma was struck by it. He'd never been this close to it in person, had never had a reason to even before the Valuan authorities marked it as a national security site and began restricting access. If it had been opened, it would have been possible to fly a ship twice the size of a normal Valuan ship-of-the-line through it.

Big enough to stuff a Gigas down inside of it, as well, since Fina's claims had been accurate so far, and he wasn't about to demean her by doubting it now. Especially since she was over at one corner of it, cooing softly as her little floating puffball of a pufferfish pet let out a particularly pitiable squeal and vomited up another pile of moonstone flakes.

"Well, now we know you shouldn't eat the discolored ones, don't we?" She consoled the small creature, dutifully picking through the mess it had coughed up with a handkerchief, and retrieving the still-bright moonstone 'Chams' that she'd been finding and feeding the little thing throughout the voyage. "Why don't we call these nasty ones Choms? Okay, Cupil? No more Choms for you."

Cupil, to the creature's credit, recovered fast, although he seemed to be a touch weaker and less resilient than he'd been earlier in the day. Drachma considered the Chams Fina was resecuring, then shook his head and trudged on towards Aika, who was (Perhaps a little stupidly) tapping at the Great Seal with the tip of her 'Grendel Wing' as she'd taken to calling her newest boomerang.

"Fina wasn't joking about how tough this Seal is." Aika remarked. Drachma harrumphed, stifling his laughter.

"The Valuans set off about two tons of gunpowder one time about fifteen years back, as the stories go."

"Really?" Aika looked around the seal. "I don't see any scorch marks."

"Exactly."

Aika blinked, then did a double take. "Oh."

"Aye, exactly." Drachma rolled his eye. "So, perhaps, ye' can hold off on poking at it." Which she eventually did, albeit grudgingly.

"What else have they tried to get through this seal, Captain Drachma?"

"A team of prisoners with pickaxes one time...and then they once aimed an entire fleet's worth of cannonfire down on it."

Vyse joined them after that, his head still swiveling about in search of trouble. "It seems like Valua has thrown everything they possibly could at trying to crack the seal open, then. But...why wouldn't they just try to dig _away_ from the seal, and then come at it underneath from the side?"

Drachma shrugged at that. It seemed like a perfectly good idea, really. Maybe there was something about the bedrock composition which made excavation impossible, or…

Or maybe the Valuans just weren't all that serious about putting the work into it.

Any such thoughts or musings were immediately driven away when a shout from up above caused them all to look towards the source; a Valuan sentry, whose cry of alarm caused a small company of troopers to come racing down towards them with swords and stun batons.

Aika growled. "Drachma, you said they threw a couple of tons of gunpowder at this thing and couldn't crack it, right?"

"Aye?" He said, curious.

"Good." Fina nodded, channeling spirit fire into her boomerang. "Then this shouldn't hurt it, either."

It didn't end up being much of a fight, but really, it had been six guards against four battle-hardened warriors who had cut their teeth fighting monsters and temple guardians and worse things besides. With the amount of battle magic that Aika and Fina brought at the start (Fire and ice and so much _wind_), the Valuans were only able to get off a few glancing blows before Vyse and Drachma fell on them with thundering fury and force.

One of them at least surrendered before he was left as a smoking husk or a pincushioned, broken corpse. That was the one who, trembling in a puddle of his own piss, decided it would be a good idea to answer every single one of their questions. Including the most important one to Drachma's mind; The distinct lack of patrol sentries, and the relative ease of their incursion.

"They were retasked. Scuttlebutt is that they're joining up with the Sixth Fleet under a new Admiral, that hotshot protege of Galcian's...Ramirez, I think. We're gearing up for an assault on Nasrad." Fina gasped while he was talking. Drachma looked at her for a bit, noticing how _pale_ she looked. Like she'd seen a ghost.

Not that he cared.

"Impossible." Drachma rumbled. "The South Danel Strait is too well fortified. The Valuans didn't make it through two decades ago during the war, they won't make it through now."

"They might...if they used the North Danel Strait." Fina pointed out, haunted and looking like she wanted to curl into a ball.

"Impossible." Vyse snapped. "Not through _that_ Sky Rift." Fina looked ready to argue the point further, though. And why? What did she know about the Valuan's capacity that none of the rest of them did? Drachma saw the soldier twitch a little, and he adjusted his aim so that the metal knuckles of his false hand were once again pointed directly at the bastard's helmeted skull. The soldier froze up like a good boy and kept talking.

"Though, that's not for a while." The Valuan hastily amended. "Right now, I think that there's a task force chasing down reports of Rhaknam being spotted out here."

The answer had the opposite effect that the soldier likely intended; namely, instead of mellowing his bloodlust, Drachma started seeing red. His shoulder ached.

_"Rhaknam."_

"Drachma." Vyse began, cautiously. Carefully. "Drachma, you need to focus. Okay?" He spoke like Drachma was a ticking bomb.

Which, he supposed, he rather was. And there was something about the delicacy Vyse was using in his voice that touched an old, worn nerve.

Drachma breathed, _slowly_. Then he turns and looks to Vyse. "Boy. I've been helping you and your girls out with your whole 'save the world' quest for two months now. But I'm not losing this opportunity."

Vyse thought about it for about two, perhaps three seconds. Then he smiled and nodded.

"No, you're not. But if you're hunting Rhaknam, you're not doing it alone. Not this time. We're staying with you, captain."

The weight of his vengeance eased at those words. The red in his vision faded enough that he could see the other colors again. And he felt a swell of emotion that might be something beyond just relief, that they were staying. That he had a crew, that he wasn't _alone in this_ anymore.

Not that he cared.

His shoulder still aching, Drachma choked on his words, swallowed, and nodded.

* * *

_80 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

Drachma had parked the ship and told the kids to sleep, taking the long watch that night. He might have slept himself, but there was too much of a chance for Rhaknam to appear...or for the Valuans to catch wind of them properly. In either situation, it was his ship, and he'd be the one to stay awake and looking for trouble.

The fact that being this close to Rhaknam made his memories too vivid for alcohol to numb away had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all. But because there would be no escaping the past tonight, he'd taken a small box usually locked away safely in his cabin up to the deck with him.

In the stillness, footsteps were all too evident, and he knew these too well. The girls were softer, and nowhere near as determined.

"Couldn't sleep, boy?" Drachma asked softly, only turning when the footsteps went still and their owner was caught out.

"Not really." Vyse admitted, and finished trudging out onto the foredeck to stand close to Drachma. He hadn't even changed out of his usual uniform. "A lot to think about."

"...Ye haven't figured out how to move forward yet with those lasses of yours, have ye?"

"If you know a good way forward after everything's been overturned, I'm all ears."

"Can't do anything if ye don't take that first step, boy."

Vyse chuckled uneasily at that and leaned against the rail. "There's a lot more to you than you let on, old man. Though I'm surprised to find you not drinking."

"Need to stay sharp tonight." Drachma said, his hand squeezing around the box a bit. He should have hid it away when he heard Vyse coming. He hadn't.

And then Vyse asked what was in the box. Drachma could have refused him. Snapped at him. Told him it was none of his business. He did none of those things, and instead, just handed it over.

Vyse took it, opened it up, looked inside…

And pulled out a brightly colored feather. "Feathers?" He asked.

Drachma nodded. It was his burden, the source of his pain and his vendetta, but it was one he kept to himself. Or he had, anyways. Now, though? Something about the night felt...tilted. Unbalanced. Like things could tip either direction. "Aye. They...belonged to my son."

He could stop talking. Leave it at that. Vyse would have respected the silence, he respected Drachma enough days ago to keep the girls from peppering him with questions when Gordo the Round blabbed the secret he'd tried to bury from public scrutiny, but which was still known somehow within the bounds of the North Ocean.

But there was something broken in Drachma, something that had been broken for more than fifteen years. It was what made him want to _not_ bottle it up for once.

There was no ale, no rum. He was clear-headed for once.

Vyse looked at him and waited. He could still not say a damned thing more, and Vyse wouldn't judge.

Not that he cared what Vyse thought about him.

"He was my precious boy." Drachma forced the words out, and like a dam that had been clogged, removing the first impediment caused it all to tumble free. "He collected feathers from every bird he could." He chuckled a little, feeling his eye sting. "Some of them he caught on the wind when we were out fishing. Some of them must have been blown in from Ixa'taka...such pretty colors. And I never knew where they were from."

Vyse came a little closer to him, handed the box of feathers back, sat down on the deck and pulled his knees up to his chest. In the faint glow of the oil lamp Drachma was using, there was open curiosity in his eyes.

"What was his name?" The boy asked.

And Drachma chuffed. He didn't laugh. He never laughs, he told himself, and knew immediately it was a comfortable lie.

"Jack." The name he hadn't uttered for 15 years passed his lips. "His name was Jack."

There might have been tears in Vyse's eyes at that as he caught the significance of the name, and the _ship's name_, but Drachma figured he was just seeing things. At least, until he said his next sentence, and Vyse broke just as Drachma did. "You remind me of him some days."

By mutual agreement, neither of them said anything else until they wiped away the moisture (Not tears, just irritation from a harsh night wind). Drachma spoke a little more, about how he lost his son and his crew and nearly his ship, because the _Little Jack_ had always been a fishing vessel first. He wanted to say more, but by then, something in the air had changed.

A sudden fog rolled in, confusing Vyse. But Drachma knew what it was. He jerked up to his feet and glared, the touch of rimefrost in his lungs from the suddenly cool air and the ache in his shoulder worsening by the second.

"Wake the others. It's time."

* * *

This wasn't how it was supposed to happen, Drachma raged into the night, screaming inside of his head and out of it. They had found Rhaknam. They had _found Rhaknam_. Why were a trio of Valuan ships chasing after the fell beast and firing on it? He wasn't about to let them claim the kill! He had hunted this damn whale almost longer than Vyse and the girls had been _alive_. Nobody was taking this from him!

Dropping one of the ships in a surprise attack had been necessary to line up for a shot with the _Little Jack's_ Harpoon Cannon. And the Harpoon Cannon had _worked_, the moonstone-powered barb plowing into Rhaknam's side and _hurting it_ like no cannon shell Drachma had ever fired had been able to. He was reminded of a line from some old tragedy he'd watched by a traveling drama troupe when he had been a boy, and Valua had not been so dark, so polluted, so ruined as it was now.

_From Hell's Heart, I stab at thee..._

But then the damn _Valuans_ decided that it would be better to fire on the _Little Jack_ instead of the giant arcwhale that had ruined so many lives. And the _Little Jack_, bound to Rhaknam by the weight of the Harpoon Cannon's line, had no room to avoid. No room to counter. Had nothing it could do, really, except sit there and endure the punishment of broadsides and incendiary Pyri shells that left the ship broken, burning. Dying.

"Captain Drachma! Sir!" Vyse yelled, getting his attention. "Sir, the ship is critically damaged!"

"We can't put out all these fires!" Aika screamed up the stairs. "We have to abandon ship!" She and Fina had raced to get their extinguishers working, once it was clear that the Valuans truly meant to end them.

"NO!" Drachma howled, because it was all in his grasp. His vengeance, the terrible and inutterable _wrong_ of his life, the pain and the agony and _fury_ that had fueled him for years had been pooled into that one shot of the Harpoon Cannon, and he had struck at Rhaknam, but the Arcwhale was not _dead_. Not yet. "I've not come this far to be denied my revenge! After all that this beast has taken, all the lives he's ruined, I will see him breathe his last!"

And then Vyse was abandoning the wheel, something Drachma had told him time and time again to never do, and instead he grabbed at Drachma's chest, shaking him, and his brown eyes burned.

"You can't avenge your son if you're _dead!"_ Vyse screamed, and between that and the forceful shaking, Drachma's head cleared a little. "Is Rhaknam's death worth your life? Is it worth Aika's, or Fina's? Is it worth** mine**?!"

That broke the last vestiges of his bloodlust, and for once, Drachma realized his mantra had fallen woefully short.

There was something he cared about. Something more important than fifteen years of bitterness and a chase with nothing but death at its end.

So he swallowed, nodded, and with a voice bled raw from screaming at a creature who was a _living curse on his life_, answered the boy.

"All hands to the lifeboats. Prepare to abandon ship."

He moved after that, he knew, but somehow, minutes went by before he blinked and came back to himself again. And when he did, it was to see Aika and Fina crowded into one lifeboat with Aika's satchel with the Red and Green Moon Crystals held tightly in Fina's arms, and Vyse looking at them as the ship burned around them.

"This isn't the end." Vyse promised them both, though he didn't reach for their hands, or kiss their foreheads, or stroke their faces like he probably wanted to. His hands flexed on the edge of the lifeboat, and Drachma knew just how much he was holding himself back. "We'll find each other. We'll keep going. We'll find a way."

"Forget the second lifeboat, Vyse! Just get in here! Drachma can take the second one himself!" Aika snapped, panicking a bit. Maybe she picked up on something in the boy's voice that set off her warning signals. Vyse shook his head. Maybe he was smiling. "Damnit, Vyse, we're not _leaving you!_"

It ate at Drachma, just how impassioned that spitfire of a redhead could still be after all the pain and misunderstandings. And what Fina couldn't say with her mouth, she expressed with her eyes.

Vyse, noble to the last. Women and children first. "I love you both." He said to them, and _pushed_. The girl's lifeboat slid away from the foundering _Little Jack_ and was swept into the gale.

The boy moved fast after that. One lifeboat to go, and the two of them as passengers. But while Vyse hopped into it in a hurry, Drachma lingered.

"What are you waiting for, old man? Come on!" Vyse urged him, fretfully looking out the back hatch of the burning ship, out to where he'd last seen the girls...no, the _women_ that he loved more than anything else. The women he'd do anything to keep safe, and alive, and on speaking terms. Even sacrifice his own heart for.

Drachma tried to remember the last time he'd cared that much.

He couldn't. So, Drachma made a decision.

The lifeboat lurched forward towards the hatch and Vyse stared at him like he'd gone mad. "Drachma! What are you doing?! Get in here!"

But Drachma didn't. His mind was swirling with what had to be done. If he could get Vyse off, he could make it up to the bridge. Fire the cannons. Keep the Valuans thinking that they were all still aboard. He could give the kids a chance to get away.

He should have said something to Vyse, Drachma knew. Something to inspire the lad, or to keep him focused. He wanted to tell Vyse to look after his girls, because time, Drachma understood, would let them figure themselves out.

But he didn't say anything. He'd spent all his time with them trying to get them to believe that he _didn't care_, and he'd done the job too well.

So he smiled, winked, and shoved Vyse and the last lifeboat out of the stern of the _Little Jack_, and watched the boy that he considered a son in all but name disappear into the maelstrom, screaming his name.

Not that he _cared_. But if he did, Drachma mused as he stood sweating in the bowels of his burning ship, the legacy of half a lifetime's vendetta come to collect its due…

There were worse ways to go than saving his kid's lives.


	16. What Am I To You

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Sixteen: What Am I To You**

* * *

_82 Days after the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Location Unknown_

There had been the pain of watching Vyse, still aboard the burning ship, slipping away from them as their lifeboat's small engines kicked in and were promptly overwhelmed by the wild storm kicked up by Rhaknam's wake. There had been the fear and confusion as she and Fina hung on for dear life, clutching to the tiny skiff and the Moon Crystals and each other with all the strength they had, and the sensation of being lost to the storm.

At the end, when the squall that had dragged them Moons knew where and left their boat fluttering and drifting aimlessly in unfamiliar skies was over, there was a bone-deep weariness and the darkness of full exhaustion, and Aika, strung out and with nothing left to give, let it claim her. When she came to again, her body ached, her head was swimming, and she could hear voices burbling around her. Trying to open her eyes just brought her pain, but she flailed out anyways.

Where was Vyse?! She _needed_ Vyse! Where was _Fina?!_

"Easy, girl! Easy! You're all right!" There were soft hands, warm hands, holding her down. She was struggling. She needed Vyse. She needed _Fina_, and...and…

"You're okay. You're both okay." A woman's voice. Several women's voices. Her throat hurt. Why did her throat hurt?

Oh. Oh, she'd been _screaming_.

Something cool and moist pressed to her forehead, and behind it there was a tingle of magic. Healing magic.

She felt very tired all of a sudden.

"Rest. Just rest. You're going to be all right. You both are." That woman's voice, warm and reassuring, said again. And Aika really was tired. But she had to know. She had to…

Then someone grabbed her arm just above the wrist, moved it to the side, and she felt smooth skin underneath her fingers. Smooth skin, and soft hair, and a circlet with a veil…

"Fina…" Aika wheezed. Fina was here.

"Sleep. You're both safe." The woman repeated.

Finally believing it, Aika gave up and let the spell of healing sleep take her.

* * *

The next time she woke up, she was surrounded by warmth, and softness, and the smell of flowers. Where was the hard bunk? Where was the smell of engine oil and…

_Fina…_

She inhaled sharply, and froze. She could still smell Fina, but everything else was different, and wrong. When she opened her eyes, the familiar lines of the _Little Jack_ were missing. She was in an enormous bed with sheets that felt so smooth around her, and when she looked down the length of her body, she was covered by an enormous comforter, brighter and warmer than anything else she'd ever seen in her life. The room was shaded in paints and fabrics of pinks, reds, and yellows, warm colors and furniture and decorations that reminded Fina of a honeymoon suite at the fancier places they'd stayed in various ports.

And Fina was sleeping in the bed right next to her. Some of the tension bled out of her. Relief took its place.

_I have lost my...lost Vyse. I have lost my ship. I have lost almost everything, but I still have you. I still have my friend._

And then right after she felt that bit of reassurance, after the most pressing needs and losses were addressed, her brilliant mechanic's mind spun to the other things that she had to worry about.

The Moon Crystals. _The Moon Crystals!_

She jerked upright with a gasp and immediately regretted it, her head swimming with fresh pain and a bump she couldn't remember getting pulsing on the back of her skull. For a moment, her blurry vision saw double.

But even with that, she saw the two bags on the two...the _one_ satchel on the _one_ table next to the bed, she corrected herself. The flap was strapped down tight, but the geometric shapes of an octahedron and a pyramid bulged the sides out.

They were safe. They were not taken.

Valua hadn't won.

Not yet. And for a moment, Aika was plagued with a sudden thought. If Valua was really after the Moon Crystals, and Fina's plan to stop them was to round them all up and take them back to her people to hide them…

Wouldn't it just be easier to _throw them overboard_ and let the abyss of the Deep Sky claim them, where nobody could ever find them? Where nobody would ever think to look to retrieve them?

The sound of the door opening shattered that logical, dark, _dark _thought and blasted her back to the warm room and the warm bed and a warm, sleeping Fina...who was finally stirring at the sound of the door being accessed.

A woman with perfectly styled red hair and a frilly pink dress fancier than anything Aika had seen in her life came into the room, concern in her eyes until she saw that Aika was up and alert, and Fina was slowly doing the same.

"Hello, girls!" The woman said brightly. "Oh, I'm glad that you're finally awake. You two were like death warmed over when we found you."

Fina groaned and rubbed at her eyes, and Aika stilled her questions long enough to reach over and rub the other girl's back to comfort her. Then she looked back to their rescuer. "And...we're glad for the rescue. But who are you? Where are we? And _why_ does this room look like a honeymoon suite?"

The perfectly pressed red-haired woman twirled into the room with a broad smile, and behind her came a pair of female sailors bearing trays with drinks and cut fruit.

"Answers, in order? My name is Clara, also known as 'Calamity Clara', of the Blue Rogues. You're on board my ship, the _Primrose_, currently headed for the city of Nasrad where we were on our way for resupply when we stumbled across you." She gestured with a hand around the room. "And really, dear, it's bad form to go besmirching the decor of your rescuer."

Clara. _Another_ Blue Rogue that Aika had never heard of. Still, it was heartening, and she sighed in relief. "Sorry. It's...We've been through a lot. My name is Aika, and this is Fina. We're Blue Rogues as well."

"Really?" Clara's amused smile faltered for genuine astonishment, shot through with joy. "Oh, fantastic! Who are you with?"

And the moment of happiness broke.

_I'm not with anyone._

Fina spoke up for her. "We were sailing with Captain Vyse of the Blue Rogues, when...we were separated."

"I haven't heard of him."

"...He is the son of Captain Dyne." Fina added, and Aika chanced a look up to Clara.

The red-haired woman sucked in a sharp breath, and went pale for a moment.

"You've heard of him." Fina went on, and though she was as tired, as sore, as hurting as Aika was, the wounds to her heart and her mind weren't as terrible. So she spoke for them both.

Clara slowly started to breathe again, and managed to reach a chair before she fell down. As it was, she fairly collapsed into it. "Not a one of us hasn't. Dyne was the First."

"The first _what_?" Aika asked. "Centime said something about him being Valuan. It shocked us, Vyse worst of all."

Clara shook her head. "Dyne was the First Blue Rogue. The First to raise our banner. The First to break away from tyranny, and imagine a better way."

"Were you Valuan?" Fina asked quietly. "Like Dyne and Centime?"

"No." Clara answered, and a faint smile returned to her face. "No, I'm not. And do I _look_ that old? No, I joined after. _Much_ later after. You would have been young girls then, seven or eight years old, I think." She looked between Aika and Fina and came to some quiet decision. "There's a lot I think we should talk about, but it can wait. We've not reached Nasrad yet, won't for a few hours. And you two are still shaken up, and you need more rest." Clara gestured to the two members of her crew who'd come in, and they set the drinks and plates of food down beside Aika's satchel on the little table. "So, take your time. And when you feel up to it, you can come out and join us on the bridge, though if it's not for a few hours, I won't be mad about it. Moons know I know how comfortable my bed can be."

The female Blue Rogue spun around with another flourish, following her crew out of the borrowed bedroom and leaving Aika and Fina alone. Aika stared down at her hands, resting in her lap, and felt the weight of her red hair freed from their braids, left hanging down behind her head in wild, staticky clumps. She tried to think of something to say, and couldn't. It was left to Fina to break the silence, who did so after having Cupil manifest off of her wrist so she could hug it close like a plush doll.

"Aika? What is a honeymoon suite?"

Aika lost it, slipping into wild, gasping laughter.

No ship. No Vyse. The Moon Crystals still intact. His last words, before he pushed them out into the storm, away from death.

_**"I love you both."**_

Somewhere in those lost seconds, she had begun crying, because she could feel Fina behind her, holding her close. Holding her tightly, holding her together, because she was breaking all over again.

"We'll find him." Fina promised, her arms iron wrapped in velvet around Aika's waist as she buried her face into Aika's hair. "I _swear_ to you, Aika, we will find him."

Aika didn't know where to start, but she slumped against her friend like the lifeline she was.

* * *

_The Primrose_

_Bridge_

Calamity Clara was as different from Captain Dyne as Centime was, Aika decided after ten solid minutes in her company. While she and Fina regaled the Blue Rogue about their exploits since they rescued Fina from "Admiral Fop" in Mid-Ocean, Clara listened intently, but with an openness to her emotions that Dyne utterly lacked, and which Centime hid behind a placid, child-friendly mask of constant calm and warmth. The food and drink that they'd been given was gone by the time they joined her on the bridge, but Clara still plied them with a warm mug of tea as she listened to their stories of fighting and fleeing from the Valuans, of treachery and a long suicidal voyage, of terrifying giants and crimes against humanity. Her eyes sparkled at the tales of ancient ruins and lost secrets...and when the truth of what Aika held in her satchel was known, it was fair to say the woman blanched.

"Powerful enough…"

"Powerful enough to sustain the Valuan war machine for years. Individually." Fina repeated. "Or awaken and control its linked Gigas. We saw the devastation Valua inflicted on its own land, its own _people_ to feed the war machine of expansion." The Silvite shook her head. "We cannot allow Valua the opportunity to continue that rampage with exponential growth. But...Priorities. We need to find Vyse. We have to know, if...if he didn't…"

Clara tut-tutted and gave them a gentle smile. "You girls need to have a little more faith in your man. If he's anything like my Gilder, he'll show up again and surprise the heck out of you."

Aika chuffed once, trying for a laugh and failing to make it sing the way it deserved to. "He would know what to do." She said, and winced when it sounded more like an admission than an observation.

She wasn't surprised, though, not really. She was lost, and shaken, and couldn't see a way out of it.

She wanted Vyse, and he wasn't here. She felt Fina's hand slide against hers, the girl's fingers parting her own, sliding between them, squeezing hard.

She still had Fina. She still had her friend.

"We need a ship." Fina declared, somehow unbroken in spite of their mutual loss. "We might be able to find one in Nasrad, yes?"

"Yes, but it won't be cheap. And I don't know how much money you girls have on you, but it likely isn't enough."

Aika shook her head. Clara was right, they had almost nothing for funds. Vyse had been holding on to most of their money, since Aika and Fina had been put in charge of the Moon Crystals and their other valuables. Not that they'd had much for money even before; they spent it almost as fast as they made it. They hadn't had that much when they got to the Maw of Tartas, and…

Aika stopped, going wide-eyed. "Nasrad is in danger." She breathed out, her own sadness blown away on the winds of trouble.

"What do you mean?" Clara asked, confused. "In danger from what?"

"Valua." Fina explained, grabbing onto Aika's thought and expanding it. "While we were sailing through Valua's skies, before we were separated, we interrogated a Valuan soldier. From him we learned that a substantial fleet is being put together with the sole purpose of leading an attack on Nasrad. And we suspect that they mean to use the North Danel Strait to do it."

Clara shook her head. "Impossible. The sky rifts around the North Danel Strait are too powerful. Sky rifts in _general_ are too powerful for most ships to survive."

And Fina smiled with a certainty that had been growing since De Loco had fired that 'moonstone cannon' of his in the battle against Grendel and King Ixa'taka. "We've spent a lot of time fighting the Valuans lately. Relying on old assumptions about their technological prowess would not be a wise decision."

"The Nasultan isn't known for his...openness to new ideas." Clara cautioned them. "And in truth, you would be better off if you stayed clear of the palace."

Fina's smile thinned, but stayed. "Failing to try and warn them of Valua's plans would make us no better than collaborators. We must try."

Clara sighed. "I was afraid you would say that." She looked to another member of her crew and made a small gesture, and for a moment, Aika braced herself for an act of treachery. A second passed before her stance melted away for shame; Blue Rogues didn't do that to one another. A bag of money was produced, and handed over to them. "I can't spare much, but what I can give, I gladly do. And the advice is free. Stay in the public spaces. Avoid dark alleys. When you try to speak to the Nasultan, dress plainly, and mar your features. Do not carry your money openly; hide some in your clothes. As much as possible, stay together. Drink nothing you have not poured yourself, and if you wander away from a glass, stay clear of it after."

Fina went pale, as did Aika, but at least Aika had a clue for Clara's caution. The redhead nodded slowly. "We'll be careful, Clara."

"See that you do." The Blue Rogue nodded once. "And there is an inn that is known to the Blue Rogues; It is called _The Calm Sands_. Ask for a woman named Fatima, and then mention my name. She will not offer a discount, but she will keep you safe during your stay. For as long as it is. Just be sure to pay your bill. She is friendly to Blue Rogues, but we are still on the less reputable side of the law."

"We will." Aika promised, memorizing the information. "And thank you, Clara."

It wasn't much. A small bit of coin, not enough for a ship of their own, a port of possible danger, and a lone contact friendly to them.

Aika shrugged off the worry. She was a Blue Rogue.

They'd done more with less.

* * *

_Nasrad, The Calm Sands Inn_

_83 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Midday_

Fatima was an older woman with a face burnished by the harsh sun that gleamed bright in the lands of the Red Moon. Yes, she knew of Clara, and no, that didn't mean that these two girls fresh off the boat were getting a discount, she warned them. Being forewarned, Aika managed a mute nod, managing to remember to ask for their stay to be kept on a tab, at least while they're looking for additional work. Aika had Fatima pegged as a tough as nails sort of lady with a no-nonsense attitude, someone who'd lived a hard life and wore the scowls it caused like a shield.

But she didn't give them any flak, either. She scowled, and glared, but all the same, she handed them a key and packed them up the stairs, and had only one last thing to say; _"Be sure you get back here before it gets dark."_ Then she'd paused, and almost after-the-fact, added, _"If you miss the evening meal, it's on your heads."_

Their room was small, with spartan decorations and the mattress was lumpy underneath her as Aika sank down into it. She leaned back on her arms and looked up at the ceiling.

The plan. _Remember the plan._ The room would be on a tab. They were going to find Vyse.

They had to find Vyse.

"It's...very homey here." Fina ventured carefully, bouncing a little on the worn-out mattress of her own bed. "So...what do we do now?"

"Jobs." Aika said, and she opened and closed her mouth a few times. "We need...we need jobs. We need money."

"For a ship." Fina added. "What Clara gave us is a start, right?"

Aika nodded, and bit her lip. Then Fina got up off of her bed and came over to sit beside her. She reached for Aika's hand, placed her own over it.

"Breathe, Aika." Fina said, some heat in her voice. Which was confusing. Aika _was_ breathing.

Oh. Wait. Why was everything so dark?

Aika breathed, and the darkness faded.

"Better." Fina hummed, and pulled Aika's arm out away from her. Aika flopped sideways onto the bed after that. She flopped down beside Aika as well, and blue eyes met brown. She never let go of Aika's hand. "You froze up there."

Aika kept breathing. She had to keep breathing.

_Remember the plan._

She needed Vyse.

"Are we in danger?" Fina asked her.

"Always." Aika knew that to her bones. "This is _Nasrad_. It's not like Sailor's Isle. It's not like my home. Things are wilder here. More free. But for every two people who would treat you decent or would ignore you if you weren't buying anything from them, there will be one who will try and hurt us. Because it will profit them."

"But you know what to look out for." Fina argued. "And Clara...she warned us. About what to watch out for."

"I...I know." Aika shook her head. Fina squeezed her hand again, and Aika remembered to breathe again. "I just...I need…"

Fina kept staring into Aika's eyes, not blinking. Like she was pinning Aika down.

"Tell me what you need." Fina whispered.

Aika shut her eyes. She needed Vyse.

"I need to know that we're going to be okay. I need Vyse."

She felt Fina move. She felt the Silvite's lips press against her forehead, felt her pull back afterwards.

"We're going to be fine. And we're going to find Vyse. We're going to save him. And then we're going to keep on stopping Valua from ruining the world. Okay?"

Fina sounded so sure of that. "Okay." Aika whispered.

"First, you're going to take a nap. And then we're going to go look for jobs, before we come back here so you can sleep."

"Okay." Aika repeated. Fina squeezed her hand.

She kept breathing, and did it without the reminder.

* * *

_The Cactus Barrel Tavern, Nasrad_

_84 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

They did find work, and in relatively short order; They had gone off to whet their whistles at a more upscale tavern along the main road leading up into the Nasultan's palace, and after seeing just how harried the shortstaffed workers were, had inquired about working there. They'd been hired on the spot and told to report back the next day.

Today.

They were a couple of hours into their shift, and the lunch crowd was slowly filtering out, leaving only the older folks who no longer had to work to wile away inside away from the midday heat, playing their board games. Aika was waiting tables, and at her insistence, Fina stayed behind the bar, pouring out ales and wines.

Aika put down her tray and slid the empty mugs over to her friend. "Another pair of Firejuice ales for the gamblers." She said, tilting her head back to where two old men were stubbornly working over a backgammon set. "How are you holding up, Fina?"

"I'm gaining a newfound respect for the loqua tavern owner we met in Horteka." Fina said, sweating a bit from the work and the heat inside of the stone building. She slid the mugs under the taps and got to work, tilting them in the way that the owner had demonstrated to reduce the head of foam. "And Merida."

"Moons only knows what she had to put up with, working there." Aika murmured. She leaned in as she reclaimed the now full cups. "Anyone try to get fresh with you?"

Fina's blue eyes glimmered darkly. "Not yet." She whispered back, and Cupil, sitting on her wrist as a silver bracelet, moved slightly. "But I'm ready if they do. You?"

Aika smirked, touching her top. "One knife in my right boot. The obvious one at my waist, the boomerang on my back...and one tucked in between the girls. Just in case."

Fina whistled lowly. "You _are_ prepared. I almost feel sorry for anyone who tries something stupid with you."

"Blue Rogue." Aika smirked. Not that she really needed the knives for drunken idiots; that, she had her hand to hand training for, as one man who'd almost gotten his wrist broken for slapping her ass earlier had learned. It was more for the morons that might try something outside of the saloon. "And I'm reasonably sure, Fina, that you count as one by now."

Fina shook her head. "I have taken no vow of loyalty. I remain a priestess of the Silver Moon."

"Honorary Blue Rogue, then." Aika scooped up the mugs, left the tray behind, and sauntered over to the two game-playing men. "Two ales, as requested. Ten gold, please." The money was handed over, with a few extra coins for a tip, and Aika smiled and winked as she stepped away.

She could feel their eyes on her backside, but they had more sense than to reach for the goods. The coins she set into the till, and the tip went to Fina, who quietly tucked them away in a pouch that went into a formerly invisible pocket on the side of her skirt.

"A little bit at a time." Aika advised the other girl. "We'll get there."

* * *

_The Calm Sands Inn_

_Evening_

They kept to the main roads on the walk home, but even with that, there was a spot of trouble from a group of drunk young men who didn't know how to take no for an answer. They got put down hard, and were left as a groaning pile of limbs while the girls returned back to the inn. Fatima gave them a gimlet eye, but didn't ask anything. She just grunted and shoved them towards the communal dining hall, where they ate their fill of a spicy meat and vegetable stew, fluffy long-grain rice, and bread meant to be dipped in the main course. Their mouths were fairly on fire afterwards, and the cold milk that came with it was welcome relief.

Afterwards, as they were settling up in their room, they took turns washing out the sweat of the day from their clothes and their bodies. Aika went first at Fina's suggestion, and came out wearing a long shift that dragged down to her calves and left her feet and ankles bare. While Fina bathed and hung her clothes to dry for tomorrow, Aika brushed out all of her hair...and there was a lot of it.

She was still working on it when Fina came out, rubbing at her own hair while Cupil, who had regained his size and strength after the unfortunate Chom incident thanks to Fina's quick work in recovering and feeding him his lost Chams, took on the form of a comb and brushed through her shoulder-length blonde hair with practiced strokes.

"Has he always been able to do that?" Aika asked. Fina shook her head as she sat down beside Aika.

"He learned to do it after I fed him all of the Chams he coughed up. They're all a little bit different from each other...something about the sequence gave him flexibility. He got back his shield, but he lost his cone projectile form. Non-combat shapes are easier for him to adopt. I think that he learns and tries to adapt to what I need. And after...after Valua...We lost all our combs."

_And everything else,_ Aika said to herself. "That must come in handy. You've had him for a while, you said. That he was your pet?"

"For a long time, Cupil was...was really, my only friend." Fina said, and plucked Cupil out of the air still shaped like a comb. "Here, let me help you with that." And she started in on Aika's hair without waiting for permission. Aika froze up for a moment, but relaxed after the third brushstroke, letting Fina take the lead.

"Your hair really is very pretty." Fina said, after a minute of working through the tangles and knots that Aika hadn't gotten to yet. "I enjoy doing this. As I recall, you enjoy it as well."

Aika mumbled an affirmative, closing her eyes. It was something that Fina had started doing back when they had been crossing the Southern Ocean, back when the Silvite had needed something, _anything_, to take her mind off of the constant torrential winds and storms that plagued it. It allowed them a chance to relax, and to learn about each other. Aika told Fina about how it had been Vyses' mother who brushed her hair out as a little girl. Fina told Aika about how she'd never had parents, and how it had been a long-forgotten friend who did it for her.

"You did good today, Princess." Aika sighed. "We actually did okay with our tips. Tomorrow, we should do even better."

"How much will it cost us, Aika? To buy a ship and look for Vyse?"

"A ship big enough for three of us, but able to be piloted by one?" Aika sighed. "Our next day off, we'll have to go down to the docks and ask around. A skiff would be our best bet, but finding a decent one that's less than 3,000 gold pieces will be tough. Then you figure on all the supplies to provision it? Add another 600 or so. Although that's Mid-Ocean prices. I'm not sure what a boat or the supplies will go for here."

Fina made a small noise of agreement. "So, how much do we have now?"

Aika shrugged. "About half, most of that's from what Clara gave us. If we can manage what we earned today...I figure about a week and a half should put us over what we need."

"And this is on top of trying to warn the Nasultan. And finding time to ask down at the docks about finding a ship."

Aika laughed a little. "You make it sound _hard_, Princess."

"Right. I forgot. Blue Rogue. You live for the impossible."

"And you're an Honorary Blue Rogue."

Fina finished brushing out her hair, and started grabbing at it. Aika jolted and turned her head around. "What are you doing, Fina?"

"Braiding your hair so you can sleep."

"I braid my hair in the morning when I wake up." Aika protested. "I sleep with it down."

"You don't want me to braid it? I mean, it gets everywhere."

Aika bit the inside of her cheek. "If it gets staticky, then it has all day in my pigtails to balance out."

"I'm just saying…"

"What?" Aika snapped, glaring at her. "_What_ are you saying, exactly?"

"I…" Fina stammered, shaken but still going. "The way you wear it, it's like you're always trying to keep it out of the way. But then you sleep with it down. I'm just wondering why you don't wear it short."

Aika shut her eyes. "Forget it. You're right. I should just cut it off. Didn't do me any good anyways." She reached for one of her sharper knives, but Fina made a strangled noise of protest, and shot her hand out to intercept her wrist.

"Don't." Fina pleaded with her. "Please don't."

"I should. It's useless."

"No, it's not. It's very pretty. It's longer than mine, and…" Fina went on. Aika looked back at her, and there was surprise on the girl's face, then understanding. "Oh. You kept it long for Vyse...didn't you?"

Aika twitched at that, then slumped.

"Aika?"

"It doesn't matter." Aika finally said, and laughed bitterly. "I was an idiot. He loves _both_ of us? How...what kind of an answer was that?"

Fina didn't move, but she didn't let go of Aika's wrist either. "Maybe his heart is big enough to make room for more than one person." She ventured carefully.

"I've never heard of something like that before." Aika muttered. "It's ridiculous. You get married, you have one person in your life. What would that make the other person? Who would be his wife, and who would be his _mistress_?" Her voice thickened up, and she let out a watery snort. "He was right. He couldn't do that to us."

"But you still love him." Fina said.

Aika closed her eyes. "Moons save me, yes." And it hurt. It hurt to think it. It hurt more to say it.

Fina reached around and hugged her gently. "There's no wrong way to love, if they love you back."

"I wouldn't do that to you. I'm not going to _love him_ and let him treat you like...like a _mistress_." Aika argued. "If he's even...if he's still…"

"He's alive." Fina promised her, burying her face into the back of Aika's shoulder. "If you believe nothing else, Aika, please. Believe that. He's alive."

"How do you know?" Aika croaked, pulling away enough to turn and look at her friend.

"I believe in him." Fina said, smiling gently. "He makes the impossible happen. He survived Rhaknam once with you. He'll survive that Arcwhale again. We will get a ship. We will find him. All will be well, dear heart."

Aika wanted to argue the point more, but she couldn't. She didn't have enough energy left to do so. So she just mutely nodded her head, then stood up.

"Let's get some sleep." Fina got up off of her bed as well, and Aika pulled back the covers. She climbed in, expecting Fina to go over to her bed and do the same.

Aika didn't expect what she actually did; Fina climbed into Aika's bed behind her, and spooned in closely until she could feel the Silvite's soft breasts pressing into her back.

"...Fina?" Aika breathed. "What are you doing?"

"Sleeping." Fina mumbled.

"But...but you have your own bed."

"Don't care."

"It's not proper!" Aika finally found the strength to argue, even as her head grew heavy on the pillow. "Fina, Vyse said…"

"What Vyse _said_, what Vyse _feels_, doesn't change anything about how _we _feel." Fina contradicted her firmly. "We were friends before. We're friends now. And you're a wreck." Aika opened her mouth to speak, but could only squeak as Fina's fingertips came up and brushed over them, pulling them shut.

Fina's thumb traced a gentle line over the side of her cheek afterwards. "If I left my own bed, would you be able to sleep tonight? At all? Would you feel _safe_?"

Aika didn't say anything. Fina brushed her hair aside and left a kiss, soft and gentle, but lasting for three seconds, against the back of her neck.

"Let me be here for you." Fina asked her, and there was a bit of shuffling before she settled into place and let one arm rest over Aika's side, the hand pooled up just beneath her ribs.

Aika swallowed, closed her eyes, and tried to ignore the pounding of her heart, the rush of heat between her tingling lips and her core.

"Okay." Aika whispered. Fina didn't stir.

"Okay, what?" The Silvite yawned.

"I'll...keep my hair long."

Fina's exhaled breath danced among the wild strands that fell to cover her neck again. "Good."

And they slept.

* * *

_86 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_The Nasrad Docks_

With so many things to do, Aika took charge of the errands on a day that she wasn't scheduled, but Fina was. After walking Fina to work, she'd taken Clara's advice to heart, dirtied up her face, and then traded a vagrant their rattiest bit of homespun robe for a meal.

The Nasultan's guards absolutely refused to let a vagrant pass by; the man apparently lived very separate from his people, and even Aika's pleas that she carried a warning about Valuan aggression didn't get a sympathetic response. She was turned away, and even as angry as that made her, it beat the alternative; being welcomed into the palace and then taken as one of the Nasultan's 'entertainments.'

She hoped for better luck down at the docks, and stowed away the homespun robe for later in a different satchel that resembled her old one well enough to fool most people. For the time being, the Moon Crystals (And their cache of gold) were kept locked away in their room, stowed beneath a loose floorboard that she had found on their first night, and then promptly sealed up with nails afterwards. When it came time to leave, it would be easy enough to retrieve them.

Nasrad was as different a port as Sailor's Island or the Valuan capital had been; Long, branching docks jutted out from the southern part of Nasrad's massive island, filled with ships of every make and model. It didn't have the cozy feel of Sailor's Island, which was busy but casual, nor did it feel ominous and oppressive as Valua. If there was a word that summed up Nasrad's port, it was _loud_.

She flinched at the sound of a massive mounted cannon being fired at the perimeter, which made the merchants and dock workers only look up for half a second before resuming their duties. So, an expected event.

Ah. Midday cannon. It made sense.

"You can set your clock by Captain Khazim!" One dock worker laughed nearby. "The fool gunner drives his crews mad with his need for precision!"

"Ah, it makes me glad that I took a job here, even if it did make my cousin angry at me." A second said, grunting slightly as the pair lifted up a crate and moved it from one section of a covered storehouse to another. "Here, we don't have to worry about being blown apart from stray gunpowder."

"Aye, just breaking your foot if you drop a crate wrong!" Their supervisor shouted out, breaking the revelry. "Be quick about it, lads, we've another shipment of dried Red Sardis coming in from Maramba today and we need the space to store it all!"

She shook her head and went over to one of the dock supervisors, easily identifiable by his finer clothes and the clipboard and miniature abacus hanging from his belt. "Good afternoon."

The middle-aged fellow did a double take and then smiled. "A thousand welcomes, young desert flower! What might we do for you?"

"I'm looking to buy a skyworthy vessel of smaller size. Where would I go, and who would I need to talk to?"

"To find a ship to purchase, you would be best served in visiting the Sailor's Guild, daughter of the red moon." It was an obvious reference to her red hair, and one she'd heard before in Maramba, and Aika let it slide. "You could, of course, wander the docks and make inquiries, but reputable sellers post the availability of smaller vessels on the Guild Registry." What went unsaid, Aika could suss out, was that less reputable sellers _didn't_.

But Clara's warning hung heavy in the air of Nasrad. So Aika smiled, thanked the man, turned, and wandered back into Nasrad proper to consult with the Guildmaster.

* * *

_Sailor's Guild, Nasrad Branch_

The guildmaster listened to Aika's plight with far more sympathy than she would have expected. He also seemed eerily similar in appearance to the guildmaster from Maramba.

"Large family." The fellow in the green and yellow guild vestments explained with a small smile. "But, there are differences. For example, see my scar here?" He motioned over one eye, and Aika realized after the fact that it was made of glass, a clear deep gash visible over its surface. "Cannon explosion. I look like my brother and father and cousins on casual inspection, but we do our best to distinguish ourselves somehow. This one just was a bit more voluntary, and our mothers are careful to never reuse names. Can you imagine how much of a headache it would be if we all had the same damn name, seeing as so many of us work in the Guild?" After they both laughed, he sobered up. "I am sorry to hear of your misfortunes. However, there are not that many advertisements for a ship of your size; Here in Nasrad, smaller vessels are typically crafted as pleasure craft. I think I have two listings that are close to a skiff in type; One is for 10,000 and the other for eleven."

Aika winced. "So expensive?"

"Nasrad is a booming trade city." The guildmaster shrugged. "It tends to drive prices up, I am afraid. I take it you do not carry that amount?"

"No." Aika frowned. "I don't suppose you would buy Discovery information?"

"Oh, certainly. Do you have your ship's journal with coordinates and other details?" He said cheerfully. But Aika's face fell further. No, she didn't.

Vyse was the one who always kept the logbook.

"No." She sighed. "My friend and I are currently working to save up enough money, but at these prices, we'll be at it for a while longer."

"Hm. There is one other option, my dear." The guildmaster said thoughtfully. "There is a merchant whose establishment is rather close. Her name is Osman, of Osman's shop. She specializes in rare valuables and also works as a moneylender and notary public. You might be able to convince her to sponsor you."

Aika listened carefully. "You don't seem sure of that."

"She is a merchant." The guildmaster said with a shrug, as if that explained everything.

* * *

_1 Hour Later_

After being kept waiting, belittled, and then insulted for being poor, Aika had been forced to suffer the indignity of being kicked out of Osman's with nothing to show for her efforts but bruises, scraped legs, and dusty clothes. She returned to the tavern where Fina was still working, and found it rowdier than usual, with an entire ship's crew having come in during her morning off. They were more raucous than usual, and Fina looked fairly on edge. The shimmer at her wrist immediately set off alarm bells in Aika's mind as the Silvite backed away from a table of inebriated patrons who were reaching for her. She was almost about to summon Cupil. And the manager? The manager had been dragged half over the bar by his shirt, and the man holding him was cocking a fist back to lay him out flat. If Fina looked concerned, the manager was well and truly _terrified_.

Aika could have shouted out a warning, given the tavern goers a chance to snap out of whatever drunken haze they were in. But she didn't. She was a Blue Rogue, and she'd seen this look in men's eyes a dozen times over sailing with Vyse and Captain Dyne; a ship's crew on liberty after a long voyage, hellbent on imbibing as much wine, women, and revelry as they could cram in at once. And when they acted like this bunch was now, things got broken, and people got hurt.

Aika wasn't going to let them hurt Fina. She snapped her boomerang out and hurled it full force across the room, watching with satisfaction as the blunt end of it smashed into the back of the skull of the man closest to Fina. He let out a single pained grunt and then collapsed, and the noise in the tavern came to a halt.

Aika calmly waited as her boomerang swerved back to her, then caught it in her gloved hand. She raised an eyebrow as all of the men in the tavern stared at her.

"You're causing a disturbance. Either get back to your chairs and settle down, or get out." She growled out.

And if that polite suggestion didn't just go ignored. Still, as the first of the rowdy bar clowns came rearing at her, it bought Fina enough time to manifest Cupil into the shape of a broad cutlass that she slashed at her attacker, carving a gouge along his arm that made him reel back in shock. Fina smirked as one guy came at her with a chair, and cracked her knuckles.

_I needed a good fight anyways._

Five minutes later, Aika and Fina stood victorious over a pile of groaning and sometimes unconscious men. There had been a lot of them, sure, but Aika and Fina had carved their teeth in fighting together on much stronger, much more _sober_ enemies.

"Maybe that will teach you to respect a woman's boundaries!" Fina declared hotly. Aika laughed and wiped a thin line of sweat off of her forehead.

"Good work, Fina. You okay, boss?" She asked, looking to the manager who was back on his feet, but stared between the girls and the pile of broken up rabble rousers.

"They...they were, and you…"

Aika rolled her eyes, and turned briefly towards the door as she overheard the sound of footsteps running for the tavern. "The Nasrad watch is coming." She sauntered over to the pile of incapacitated men and leaned down, nudging him with her boot. "This just wasn't a good day for you to be stupid, was it?" The man rolled over slightly, and his shirt shifted enough to expose a tattoo under the sleeve of his shirt. Aika's eyes sharpened, and she leaned in, lifting his shirt up for a closer look at his arm.

A Black Pirates' mark...and one bearing a familiar personalized crest.

"You fly with Baltor the Black-Bearded." Aika said aloud, and then she moved to a second man, checking him as well. He also had a tattoo, but on his forearm, hidden underneath a bracer. "You're _all_ Black Pirates." And then she smiled and looked over to Fina. "I think our luck just improved."

Fina blinked, not entirely sure what she meant. Aika calmly stood back up, stowed her boomerang, and turned to the door, looking presentable when the Nasrian town guard came storming in.

"These men are Black Pirates, serving under the authority of Baltor the Black-Bearded!" She declared. "They were accosting us and making unwanted advances, and we fought them off. The bounty for their capture is due to myself and my friend here!"

The lead guard looked dubiously at her, even _more_ dubiously at Fina, and then looked to the tavern manager. "Is this true?" Aika turned and glared at the manager, who went a shade paler.

"They...they stopped them." The man quickly agreed. "I didn't know women could fight like that."

"We can take care of ourselves." Aika explained coldly. "Now, about our reward…?"

* * *

_The Calm Sands Inn_

_86 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

News had spread fast about a group of Black Pirate ruffians laid low by a pair of _serving girls_ at the local pub, and by the time that they finished their shift and made their way back to their temporary home, Fatima was waiting outside the front door of the inn with something less than a full scowl. She'd yelled at the both of them about the need to be more careful, then scooted them inside and fed them a meal of succulents and a cooling yogurt-based lamb dish and oven-baked flatbread. She didn't praise them, or ask what they were _thinking_ taking on a group of Baltor's men on shore leave. Mentioning Clara's name had apparently convinced the older woman that Aika and Fina could take care of themselves well enough in a pinch.

Heading back into the cool darkness of their room after the mess of the day was a welcome relief to Aika. The sack of money that they had been given as a reward for the capture of Baltor's crew had been expelled by Cupil onto Fina's mostly unused bed, and she counted it up for a second time just to confirm the amount.

"Twelve hundred gold." She said, satisfied with the tally. The coins were slid back into the purse and then slid underneath the floorboards, next to the Moon Crystals. Fina made a happy noise as she wandered in from the bathroom, her damp hair hanging around her head like a halo.

"You fought him before, right?"

"In a ship battle. We never met face to face." Aika agreed. "He must be causing trouble again, if his crew is worth this much."

"So where are we now, then?"

"With the reward money...Around 4200 gold pieces." Aika hummed.

"...We still have more to earn." Fina murmured, not quite wincing. She tried to sound cheerful, though. Optimist that she was. "But the manager at the tavern is raising our salaries. That will help."

"He didn't know he was paying for a couple of waitresses who could also work as bouncers." Aika chuckled. "If we keep at it, we might just be able to get the money we need in two weeks. Maybe less, if we get really good tips. That doesn't cover the money for the supplies we'd need to outfit our ship."

"It's going to happen, Aika." Fina promised. "We're going to buy a new ship. We're going to find Vyse."

Aika felt a lump rise up and stick in her throat, and set the floorboard back into position, resecuring it. _And what do we do when we find him? What do I even say to him?_

"I...I'm going to wash up." Aika said faintly, standing back up and retrieving her nightgown. Leaving her boots and satchel underneath the bed, she checked their door and made sure it was locked before moving to the bathroom.

She could feel Fina's eyes on her the entire time she was moving around, but the Silvite never said anything. Fina was like that. She spoke up when she had a question, or something to contribute, but usually, she kept her opinions to herself. She was never not thinking, though. There had to be a lot that Fina wasn't saying.

Aika washed her clothes out and scrubbed her body with a soapy washtowel and did her best to think about the task, and about work, rather than whatever unspoken words were running through her friend's mind. If it was disappointment…If she was…

She had heated the water for her clothes and to get cleaned up, but Aika let it run cold as she soaked in the tub, letting the water leech the heat of the day out of her.

What could she say to Vyse if they were lucky enough to actually find him, like Fina kept promising they would? And Fina...Fina, who had suggested that maybe Vyse had a heart big enough for both of them, did she actually _understand_ what she was saying? Vyse loved them both? Wanted to be with them both? How could it ever be fair? Could a life spent holding only half of his heart, with the other half in Fina's warm arms, mean anything? How would it ever _work_, when Aika knew that there would always be a doubt lingering in her mind about who he loved more? And if Vyse decided to make Fina his wife...Could she stand just being his _mistress_? The woman he fucked on the side when he got bored?

It hurt to think about, but what hurt her more was that she would probably go along with it. She had _said_ she worried about making Fina the mistress in whatever screwed up relationship Vyse had in mind, but she knew otherwise. Fina was everything that Vyse would ever want in a proper wife. Beautiful, demure, strong when she had to be, emotionally stable.

Not like she was. Athletic, a tomboy with ratty red hair, an emotional wreck that bounced between anger and joy and sadness on a copper, and a bust that didn't stack up to Fina's.

She cried silently in the cold water of the tub, pulling her knees up to her chest and rocking back and forth.

Vyse would marry Fina, and make her the mistress, and she would let him. She was lost. She couldn't hate Fina, and she loved Vyse beyond reason. She loved him enough that she knew she would accept that miserable state of reality, because having even a little bit of him would be better than nothing. It would kill her a little bit every day, a knife slowly being dug into her heart as Fina had his children and she was left with his _bastards_, but she would do it with a smile, cling to him like she almost had in Ixa'taka, whisper his name in his ear while he groaned _Fina_ into hers.

The sound of Fina knocking on the bedroom door made her jerk up and splash the water loudly, and afraid that the other girl might walk in, she turned her head away from the door and quickly splashed water in her face to hide her tears.

"Aika?" Fina's voice came through worriedly. "Are you okay? You've been in there an awfully long time."

"Yeah. Sorry, I...I nodded off for a bit." Aika coughed to hide the rasp in her voice. "I guess I'm more tired than I thought." She forced her legs to work again and stood up, water running off of her body as she reached for a towel. "I'll be out in a bit. Okay, Fina?"

"...okay." The Silvite retreated, and Aika quickly finished up.

When she walked out of the bathroom, the sun had gone down completely, and only the light from the partially opened wooden shutters from the stars and the glowing red moon overhead gave any illumination to the room's interior. The candle at their desk was down to a stub of tallow, exhausted.

"We need to buy a new candle tomorrow, I take it." Aika said into the dark of the room. She could see the outline of Fina, sitting on the edge of her bed in the nightdress that Clara had given to her, a sheer garment of white satin that was perfect for the heat of the lands under the red moon. She must have been leaning back away from the light, because the Silvite's face and hair were hidden.

Fina didn't respond to the question, but she wasn't quiet, either.

"Are you okay, Aika?" Fina asked her, and there was that thin line of strength in her voice.

Aika mustered up a weak laugh. "Yeah, I'm fine, Fina, I'm just…"

"No, you're _not_ fine." Fina cut her off, and she moved slightly in the dim light, turning just a bit towards her. "I'm tired of you lying to yourself. You don't think I don't see how all of this is eating you from the inside out?"

"We'll be okay, Fina." Aika said, stumbling a bit as she tried to regain her footing. "We're earning good money now. A few weeks, we'll have our ship and the supplies for it, and...and we can...We'll _find him_."

"And then after that?" Fina demanded crisply. "_When_ we find him, what happens then? Because you're not okay with what he said. You cried after we woke up on Clara's ship. I had thought it was just that you missed him, but it's more than that. You haven't dealt with what's really bothering you."

"Yes, I have." Aika insisted, and stepped into the space between their beds, where the moonlight from the window shone on her, and left Fina still in the shadows. "However Vyse feels, it doesn't change us. We're still friends, you told me that. Okay?"

"You don't think I know what a woman crying when she's alone and then hiding it looks like?" Fina countered quietly. She stood up and stepped into the faint moonlight as well, with just a little bit of space between them.

Aika's breath caught when she realized that Fina had been crying as well. The tracks down her cheeks couldn't be anything else.

"You were probably sitting in that tub, spiraling into depression. Thinking that you were worth _less_ than I was. That he would choose me _above_ you. And I'm not going to let you do that to yourself. I can't. I did it to myself enough when I was a girl, and I won't have you falling into the same trap. Not here. Not because of this."

Aika swallowed, and felt her own tears coming up again. "How did you know? Why were you crying?"

"This wasn't supposed to be my mission." Fina chewed on her lip and smiled sadly. "Me being here was nothing but a desperate measure. All my life, I was told that I wasn't good enough. That I wasn't like _him_, that nothing I did would matter. All my life I _choked on it_, crying in the dark, until you and Vyse stumbled into my life. The two of you made me start to believe that I mattered. That I was stronger than I knew. You two gave me something to fight for, and helped me find my strength." She reached a hand out and cupped Aika's cheek. "So believe me, Aika. When I say that you _are_ good enough? That Vyse won't pick either of us over the other? I mean it. And whatever he does decide, it doesn't change us."

Aika shut her eyes and stifled a sob as the girl's thumb came up and brushed her tears away. She stood there for a few seconds, then pulled away from her hand and turned around.

"I can't be weak like this. I have to be _strong_. That's who I am, right? The strong girl, the reliable one, the dependable one? I have to be the leader because he's not here. I have to make the plans, keep up a brave face."

"Nobody can be that strong. Not all the time." Fina reassured her, and her bare feet creaked on the wooden floor a little as she stepped behind Aika and wrapped her arms loosely around her midsection. Aika felt her lean her head against her upper back and neck. "But you don't have to be. Out there? Around everyone else? Be who you need to be. But at night, when it's just us? You can let go of it. You can let me pick up the burden, Aika. Let me be the one to save _you_."

Maybe she had been just waiting for permission all of this time, Aika thought. Because at those pleading words from her dearest friend after Vyse, she felt herself _collapse_. The tears came faster than she could stop them, and she cried out almost silently, only the occasional gasp piercing the silence. She felt herself sink back against Fina, and cried all the more, grateful that the girl was there to hold her up.

"I'm so _afraid_." Aika managed, when she could speak again. "I'm afraid that we won't find him. I'm afraid that we will find him, and that he'll end up despising me, that he'll marry you and screw me on the side, that when he does take me, he'll whisper _your name_ instead of mine…"

"We _will_ find him." Fina promised, kissing the back of her neck. "And he _won't_. His heart is big enough for two people, Aika, big enough for the both of us equally. I know that everything will be all right."

"How?" Aika cried weakly. "How do you know?"

"He's a Blue Rogue. And so are you." Came the Silvite's warm response. "When have _either_ of you ever given up?"

They hadn't, Aika knew. Because Blue Rogues didn't give up. Ever.

Grounded in the code, Aika's crying jags finally began to ease off. She calmed down, worn out and empty.

"Hell of a low point." She mused into the dark.

"Nowhere to go but back up, then." Fina suggested warmly. It made Aika laugh.

Bless the girl.

"I am so glad that you're here." Aika confessed, and brought a hand up, covering Fina's as it sat on her stomach. "If I didn't have you here, Fina, if I was all alone, I don't know what I would do."

"I don't know what I would do either." Fina replied, and kissed her neck again.

But this time, Fina didn't pull away. Her lips lingered against Aika's skin. She didn't kiss her forehead or the back of her neck quickly like she would do before they went to bed. In a steady progression that left Aika shivering, the Silvite standing behind her started at the back of her neck, then moved to kiss the base of it, then went down to where her neck met her left shoulder...and while Aika trembled from the frission of those building sensations, Fina gently pulled on the sleeve of her nightdress, tugging the garment down enough to expose her shoulder, where she kissed the curve of her deltoid as well.

It was enough to make Aika draw in a ragged, shaking breath. Enough to make Fina's lips go still at last, even as her arms already around Aika's waist dipped down a bit, and the Silvite's hands palmed her abdomen and rubbed over her navel gently, silk over skin.

"...Fina?" She heard herself say.

And then Fina let go of her, allowing Aika to turn around so she could stare at the girl she only beat out in height by an inch. Fina's blue eyes gleamed in the moonlight streaming through the window. Aika's voice caught in her throat again. In those eyes, she could suddenly see so much meaning.

All of the unspoken words were there, and it left her frozen.

"Do you remember...back in the Southern Ocean, I told you to save your third question?" Fina mused huskily. "You might want to use it now."

And Aika could see the question in her mind, ringing out as clearly as anything. But she was suddenly afraid to, because...Oh, fool, _fool_ girl that she was...if Fina...If she…

Fina licked her lips, never blinking. Never looking away. "Say it." She demanded, in a whisper barely loud enough to echo over the thrum of Aika's heartbeat in her ears.

"What..." Aika started, and this time, her mouth wasn't dry. Her mouth watered as she looked at Fina, who stared up at her with...Like she was _more_…

"What am I to you?" Aika finally got the words out. And knew instantly that for once, she had asked the right question at the right time...in the right place.

Because Fina smiled at her then, and it was a smile that made everything in the world seem right. The Silvite leaned in, tilted her head just the _smallest bit_, and…

And Aika closed her eyes, felt a huff of breath against her mouth, parted her lips slightly…

And then…

_**Yes.**_

Seconds later, minutes later, as Aika shuddered for air and Fina pulled away, she came back to herself and saw Fina smiling at her, while her blood, as warm as when Vyse had been kissing her, surged through her and left an unmistakable longing ache everywhere.

"You are my friend. And you are more than just a friend." Fina said, and she ran a hand down Aika's arm, along her exposed shoulder, to her elbow, before squeezing her hand. "I told you. Vyse's heart _can_ be big enough for both us. Because mine is."

"Me? And Vyse?" Aika stammered. "Together?"

Fina smiled. "Moons willing. I understand that among your people, it's...it's a different idea. But I was taught that love is love. Wherever you find it, it's precious."

Fina brought her other hand up, cupped it around Aika's neck. "Vyse loves you. And I love you. And we both want to be with you. I'm not a substitute for him, no more than he would...would be a substitute for me." And there, Fina hesitated at last. A small sliver of doubt took hold in her perfect azure eyes. "But, how _we_ _feel_ about you, and how _you_ feel about _us..._about _me_…"

Aika's mind raced, because for once, there wasn't a clear answer. This wasn't an engine to be fixed, or an opponent to be attacked. It was a question between her heart and her head. And Fina was giving her an out. She was giving her an in.

To love Vyse. To love Fina.

To love the both of them. To love neither.

Really, what good were words? Now, in the pale glow of the moonlight? What could words say that their eyes, their hands, their lips couldn't say a hundred times better? Not for the first time, Aika marveled at how wise Fina really was.

She brought a hand up to Fina's face, cupped her cheek, and rubbed at the Silvite's moistened lips with the side of her thumb. Fina parted her lips, drew it into her mouth, and sucked on it gently. Aika shivered, and lowered her hand down, moving slow enough to give the girl time to see it coming, time enough to stop her, to refuse, to step away.

But Fina didn't, even as her breathing deepened, and her chest swelled out with every inhale. And then Aika's palm was pressed into the softest thing she had ever felt in her life, with a diamond hard point jutting into the center through the gown's sheer fabric.

It was the gentlest of whimpers, and Aika squeezed Fina softly in response. Then Fina's hand around her neck moved to the front of her nightgown, to the drawstring. Aika let her pull it, let it fall away, reached for the one on Fina's, watched with burning eyes as the thin fabric slid over the whole of her body before pooling on the floor around her feet.

Their mouths found another, and Fina pushed Aika back, urging her to the bed, where they collapsed onto it and gave into the pulse of need between them.

In the dark, two women who loved the same man saw one another for who they really were at last, and discovered that love didn't have a limit. They were Aika and Fina. They were friends, and lovers, and battle sisters, and comrades. They were themselves.

They simply _were_.


	17. No Man Is An Island

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Seventeen: No Man Is An Island**

_(?) Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Unknown Island, Skies of the Red Moon_

Vyse was alone.

His head ached and he could feel from a clump of matted hair that somewhere along the line, he'd suffered a blow to his skull and been knocked unconscious. After being shoved out of the _Little Jack_ on the tiny lifeboat, Vyse had…

He rolled over onto his back, groaning as he stared up at a peerless blue sky. The Valuans had _fired on him_. They had fired on a damn lifeboat!

Something else to add to the litany of sins against the Empire. He checked himself over, and concussion aside, he seemed in one piece. Nothing felt broken. There was only a little bit of dizziness when he sat up, but he found himself on the edge of a small pond full of clear rainwater. A long drink helped much of his exhaustion, and after checking to see what he had for possessions (Swords, coinpurse, sailor's journal), he made his way up to the closest high point for a better look at the island.

It was impressive, with its most noticeable feature being a high mountain that sloped up along the backside of the island, like a bowl tipped on its side. To the Blue Rogue's relief, there were trees, there was water...There was _life_.

It still didn't make up for the fact he was marooned.

"Panic later." Vyse told himself. His head was still buzzing a little, and he dug out the last bit of trail rations he kept stowed away in his uniform. One of dad's life lessons; Always keep some of the necessities on your person. Bags could be taken away.

Like Aika's satchel. The girls had been holding on to the Moon Crystals.

_**I love you both.**_

"Wonderful." He groaned and drew a hand across his face. His last words to them, and…

Moons, they were going to hate him after they got out of this mess. They might already hate him. He only hoped they'd done better than he had.

"No point in standing around." He growled out, and finished his meal. There was work to be done.

* * *

He wasn't alone on the island. Or, at least, someone else had been stranded here before him. It had been a sailor named Gonzales, according to the scraps of writing kept within a natural cave at the base of the island's mountain. It had taken him the rest of the day, but he'd given the man's skeleton a proper burial outside. For a reward, he had a scrap of what looked to be a vellum treasure map that the man had been holding on to...and the man's campsite inside of the cave. Out of the elements, away from the wildlife. Marks on the cave walls had shown Vyse just how long the man had been stranded before he finally expired. Too long.

Vyse pulled out his backup cutlass and infused the moonstone core in the blade with his spiritual energy, just enough to sharpen the edge so it wouldn't dull as he carved a mark into the wall opposite of Gonzales' tally.

"Well, old man. Here's hoping I'm not stuck here as long as you were." He stowed his blade and stepped back from the wall, smiling sadly. "But thank you for giving me someplace safe to rest." He hoped that giving the man a proper burial would soothe his spirit.

With only the dim light from his moonstone-infused goggle to light up the small cave dwelling, Vyse unlaced his boots and set them down beside the bed. His naval coat came next, then his leggings, until he was down to his smallclothes.

The bed wasn't anything to write home about, just dried reeds and grasses over a stone slab with a threadbare blanket to serve as a mattress cover. But Vyse had slept in worse, he reminded himself. He'd eventually gotten comfortable in a hammock. He'd get used to this as well.

There were a dozen things yet to attend to, and when he woke tomorrow, the first would be finding sustenance. His mind trailed through more of his father's old lessons on foraging and hunting, some of which he'd used during their time in Ixa'taka. Others which, while rustier, he'd have to brush off again.

But he would stay alive. He'd have to. Drachma...The old man was probably lost. His ship had been a burning mess when he'd shoved Vyse out of the back, being dragged along behind Rhaknam at the mercy of the arcwhale and the tempest it kicked up in its wake. There was nothing Vyse could do for him.

The girls, though…

He removed his eyepiece and set it down on top of his boots, then disengaged the small glow in the lens. Darkness filled the interior of the cabin, save for a thin sliver of waning daylight from the sunset outside.

He wondered where they were. He wondered if they'd escaped Valua as well, like he had. The red moon in the sky was a dead giveaway of just how far the storm Rhaknam had conjured up had blown the lifeboat. He wondered if they were as worried about him as he was for them.

He hoped they could forgive him.

* * *

_They were back on Pirate Island, and it was the night before they were going to set sail with Captain Drachma on the _Little Jack_ to head for Nasr, and the port of Maramba. To nobody's surprise, Vyse and Aika had made their way up to the bluff away from the burned down houses since Lookout Point had been blasted apart, and Fina had come along with them. They sat in the sunset, a rushed dinner in their bellies, and the unknown stretched out before them. _

_ Fina cuddled up against Vyse's left side, and Aika took his right, and neither seemed willing to move as they lay there in the slightly charred grass. _

_ "Vyse?" Aika asked him, when the silence got to be thick enough that he felt ready to fall asleep. "What did your mom say?"_

_ "Mom says a lot of things." He answered with a smile. "You'll have to be more specific."_

_ "Before we left, she said something to you, and you got confused."_

_ "Oh." Vyse blinked and tried to think about it, but...thinking was __**hard**__ all of a sudden. Like he didn't want to think. "She...wanted me to take care of you two?"_

_ Aika rolled onto her side and leaned on an elbow, tilting her face over his, and he felt one of her soft breasts push into his chest. She was wearing clothes, but he could feel it perfectly, and he almost groaned. And she knew it, because she smirked at him. So much like a cat, she almost purred._

_ "So are you?" Aika asked, and her hand came down to the top button of his coat, nudging at his collar._

_ "Am I what?" He replied huskily. _

_ And then Fina rolled over on __**her side**__, and then he had the both of them looking down at him with a hunger his racing heartbeat knew perfectly. _

_ Their hair was down. It hadn't been down before, but it was now, and Fina's veil was gone. The last traces of sunlight shot through their red and blonde hair, waving softly in the breeze and hanging like a curtain, trapping him in place with nothing but their eyes and their smiles pinning him down._

_ Their laughs made him twitch. Aika snapped the first button open, while Fina's hand went to his belt, pulling his shirt up until her fingers could graze over his bare stomach._

_ "Are you going to __**take care of us**__?" Fina teased him._

_ He didn't know what to do with his hands. His legs were lead-weighted. Aika laughed again and leaned down, her hands working feverishly over his coat, no longer unbuttoning them, but tearing it open. Fina showed just as little restraint, her delicate fingers unstrapping his belt. His swords and belt pouches fell away and disappeared, and then she was reaching for his breeches, and…_

_ "Or maybe we should take care of __**you**__." The Silvite hummed, leaning down over his groin. _

_ "Fina...what are…"_

_ "Shh." Aika's hands were suddenly cupped around his face, and she straddled his stomach, resplendently nude with her long red hair coming down and covering her breasts. Moons, his mouth watered for them, and her hair had never been so long. "Let the girl work."_

_ Behind her, Fina's voice gave another hum of appreciation as cool air suddenly blew over him, freed from his smallclothes. Vyse let out a strangled cry and bucked up, but she pulled back with a fairy's titter. _

_ "He's eager." Fina cooed, and hot air blew over his length, making him ache and groan again. "He's taken good care of his sword."_

_ Aika's brown eyes flashed with amusement as Fina sat up behind her, leaning her head on the other girl's shoulder. She didn't look back to the Silvite at all, and kept her gaze locked on Vyse. "Then maybe you ought to show him where to sheathe it."_

_ Moons, he wanted this. He wanted to touch them. To kiss them. To drive into them. To hear them moan, and pant in wanton desire, to scream his name. But his legs wouldn't move. His arms wouldn't move. And his head, trapped in Aika's hands, could not move._

_ "Shhh." Aika leaned down over him, a pair of hard diamond nubs rubbing against his chest. "You wanted this. You wanted both of us."_

_ Behind her, Fina kept on smiling, but her eyes...Vyse blinked, and wondered why her eyes were suddenly so dull. So lifeless. "You love both of us." She repeated, throwing his own words at him._

_ "So which is which, I wonder?" Aika murmured, and then her mouth was on his, and her tongue speared into his mouth, taking everything that she wanted. Even his breath._

_ "Which one does he love as the wife, and which one of us is the whore?" Fina whispered over her shoulder, and then she plunged her hips down, and he screamed..._

* * *

_2nd Day on the Island_

_Mid-Morning_

There were plenty of Grapors wiggling about, and Vyse had a need to work off all of the energy that his dreams kept leaving him with. He'd woken up screaming, sporting arousal and guilt in equal measure. Grapors made for easy game, having little in the way of offensive capabilities for the wary. It gave him a chance to practice his defense and counterattacks, and by the time he'd built up a sizable pile of the strange florafauna hybrids native to Nasr, he'd sweated clean through all of his clothes. But at least his boiling blood had cooled.

While his skinned and cleaned catch dried and smoked on skewers kept over a low blaze next to the pond, Vyse used his wrecked lifeboat as a makeshift washtub, sinking down into it afterwards with a quick application of Pyri magic to heat it up to a lukewarm temperature.

"Neither of you are." He whispered, not because there was the risk of being overheard, but because his dream turned nightmare had rattled him so badly. He couldn't look at either of them as anything _less_ than…

They just weren't. In the end, his mother's warning had been worthless, because she assumed he would be able to choose. He tried to see them as separate, and couldn't. They were always together in his mind. Aika and Fina. Fina and Aika. And neither one deserved the label of being…

_Mistress. Concubine. Whore._

He would flay himself before that happened.

_**One problem at a time, Vyse. Size up the situation.**_

"Fine, old man." He growled at the memory of Dyne's voice, now that he knew the truth, that Dyne had once flown under a _Valuan_ flag. "Lying bastard." He pulled himself out of the tub, checked to make sure his clothes were still drying, then dumped the bathwater out over the open ground. The clouds hung heavy in the sky; it was going to rain tonight. The small pond he'd been drinking from and using for everything else would be refilled in the morning.

Foodstores...covered, mainly. He'd scrounged up some fruits while he was hunting for Grapors, so he had the basics covered. Water? Covered. Shelter was taken care of, thanks to Gonzales, who would hopefully rest peacefully in his grave.

That made preparing for a rescue his next priority. There were enough loose stones inside of the caves that he would be able to make a fire pit. And firewood? Plenty of trees. It would be green wood, but that would work best for a signal fire. More smoke.

Worrying about himself didn't come easy, not when he didn't know that Aika and Fina were okay. He had to force himself to stay focused.

By the time that his clothes were finally dried off enough to wear, he'd gotten his signal fire started. The stormclouds had grown thicker, and he dressed quickly as thunder rumbled in the distance. He got his mostly dried Grapor meat back inside of the cave before it started raining in earnest, and even then the first drops had sprinkled over him.

Dinner was an unceremonious affair; he drank rainwater and ate cold Grapor meat and nearly ripe Loma fruit, and did his best to ignore the pit in his stomach that had nothing to do with food, and everything to do with the rest of his crew.

He carved another notch into the wall and stared at the pair of marks for a bit before walking back to the cave's bed and slumping onto it. "Two days." He whispered, digging his fingers around the sheet that covered up the replenished reed and grass mattress. "Please be okay."

* * *

_3rd Day on the Island_

The rains that had hit his deserted island had done more than replenish the pond; they had also exposed buried red moonstone ore, the product of moonstorms from who knew how long before. And while Vyse was by no means as skilled a mechanic as Aika had become, since he'd chosen to focus on command training under his father, he knew enough of the basics to repair the lifeboat's small engine and put the ore to work. Unrefined, it wouldn't have a lot of output, but it was a lifeboat, it didn't need a lot of oomph.

Aika could manage it handily. Vyse would need twice the time and three times as many swear words. Between that and the signal fire he still needed to finish building up, there was plenty to keep him occupied.

He just needed to finish his scavenger hunt first. Thankfully, only Grapors lingered on the island, and after his hunting spree yesterday, most were happy to steer clear of him. The ones that weren't were easy pickings for his counterstrike techniques. Mostly.

"Off!" He snarled as one incredibly brave and stupid got in close enough to squeal and wrap around his midsection, making his cutlasses next to useless. With no better option left to him, he channeled up a yellow magic spell and ran the current through himself, and the thing shrieked from the jolt and jumped clear. He hurled an arc of spirit energy from his blade and cut it cleanly in half, then sunk down onto his knees, breathing hard.

"Damnit." He panted, wishing that the girls were here with him. If for nothing else, for the fact that Aika's satchel contained the bulk of their adventuring supplies. What he wouldn't give for a Sacri crystal right about now. He settled for a healing spell, calling on his limited reservoir of magic. It was made all the harder by the fact that he sat underneath the red moon, green's opposite, and his green magic was nowhere near as advanced as the girls' were.

When he looked down and opened his eyes, he blinked to see the hint of a gleaming red chunk of moonstone ore near to one knee. He would have missed it if exhaustion hadn't gotten the better of him.

"Next you're going to tell me that it's a good thing monsters keep attacking me." He snarled to nobody in particular. He knew one voice had been thinking it, and he didn't care which. He just wanted them to leave him alone.

That night, he drew a third notch onto the cave wall.

* * *

_He never left the island. The girls never found him. Nasrad fell. He saw them trapped in the Valuan wastelands, struggling to go unseen and find a ship. _

_ He saw them in Nasrad when it fell, saw them captured, and the quest failed and Valua rise with the Red and Green Moon Crystals, and the world burn. _

_ He saw them struggle to reach civilization, only to be kidnapped as unwilling concubines, the light slowly draining from their eyes while they were abused and taken, dying a little every day._

_ He saw them survive and make their way back to home, saw Fina retreat back to her people while Aika became a Blue Rogue captain in her own right, and fought against Valua on her own. She drew strength from her loneliness, became a terror beyond even Dyne's reputation, and drove the fear of oblivion into the Empire. And she fought them for years, united a coalition that spanned the breadth of Ixa'taka to the ruins of Nasr, and under the banner of the Blue Rogues, destroyed the Empire and saw Galcian and the Empress executed in their own foul arena, their bodies tossed into the sewers afterwards to the roar of the masses. And after all was done, Aika faded away from prominence. Lesser Blue Rogues, deputies and captains and allies of convenience, separated apart and returned back to their homes and started over. And Aika climbed aboard her ship and sailed off into the wilderness north of New Nasrad and east of Valua's mainland, and searched for him. She searched for the rest of her life and never found him._

_ He saw Aika breathe her last defending Fina from a world too harsh and undeserving of the Silvite's grace and warmth, and watched as Fina emerged like a phoenix, wrapping herself in grief and vendetta like Drachma had, using the spiritual powers she so rarely called on in increasing measure, emerging as a living deity descended from the Moons. He watched as Fina, her heart hardened by loss, assumed the mantle of someone beyond even an empress, saw how merchant captains and Blue Rogues and Black Pirates alike fell to their knees in supplication or were forced down onto them for beheadings, each gruesome death carried out by Cupil, who had taken on the shape of a terrible sword gleaming with silver moonlight. She became the Moon Goddess, the arbiter of life and death, and she was loved in wild frenzy by those of her followers, for one either worshipped the goddess or was destroyed by her._

_ In every one of those nightmares, he wasn't there. He __**wasn't there**__…_

* * *

_12th Day on the Island_

"I know." _Chop._ "Moons, back off, I **know**." _Hack._

Vyse snarled at nobody and everybody as he steadily pruned off the branches from his latest bit of lumber. After struggling to get a single tree up the embankment at the island's far end for the signal fire, he'd spent days putting the small lifeboat back to rights instead. It meant he had the use of it for shuttling supplies around the island, which made his life considerably easier in the long run. Hauling firewood and Grapor meat worked a lot better with a ship.

He finished hacking the trunk into manageable chunks after another half hour, then stepped back and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. He'd given up wearing anything thicker than his undershirt most of the time, and it was solidly drenched. Vyse hopped into the boat next to the pile of lumber and flew the ship at its puttering speed over to his signal fire and started offloading it as quickly as he could. He restacked the pile, checked to make sure the lighter fire was still burning as embers, and replenished the kindling amidst the mixture of dry and wet wood.

He was as worn out as ever when he finally returned to his cave. The Blue Rogue paused by Gonzales' grave marker and ran his hand over the surface to greet the fellow, then went inside and put another mark on the wall.

Under the light of a small dry-fired blaze, Vyse took out his journal and stared at the last entry. He held it for several seconds, then sighed and turned the page and started another log entry.

_"It's now the twelfth day I've been stranded on this island. Supplies are holding, and there is ample water and firewood. What I lack most right now is…_

His graphite stick paused on the page.

"You're even lying to a Moons-damned _journal_ now." He said. "Brilliant, Vyse." When his pencil started moving again, it moved faster, as quickly as it could keep up with his mind.

_Every night, I have a different dream. Some are nightmares. Some are wonderful dreams that turn sour. In every one of them, I see them. I wake up screaming their names, reaching for them._

_ I don't know if I'll ever get off of this blasted island. Gonzales didn't. He lived here, and he died here. I know I could die; I'm a Blue Rogue, it's a risk I take every day. It's a risk I've wagered sailing into the unknown. _

_ I worry about you two. Aika, Fina, I hope you're both all right. I hope you know how much you both mean to me, that neither one of you is __**less**__ than the other. I hurt you, Aika. I hurt the both of you, but…_

_ If I could do it again, I wouldn't have the heart to refuse you. I felt like such an ass. I wanted it. I __**wanted you**__, and…_

_ I dream about you. I dream about Fina. I dream about you separately, and together. _

_ I scream because I don't know if everything is lost and Valua has won, or if there is still hope. I cry because I don't know if the two of you are alive, or if the storm took you and I'm even more alone than I am already._

_ I meant what I said. I love you both. I know it's wrong. I know it can never be. _

_ If I get out of this, I'll spend the rest of my life trying to find you two again. To apologize. To make it up to you, or to get you to safety and...walk away…_

_ Or maybe I'll never get off this island, and you'll spend the rest of your life looking for me. I don't know if I'm worth it, though. How can I be? _

_ I know it's wrong, and it's immoral, and it goes against everything we were ever raised to believe about love. It's why I tried to hide it for so long. But I can't._

_Forgive me, Aika. Forgive me, Fina. You deserved so much more._

He wondered why the graphite writing was smudged at the end, until he saw his tears dropping down on the page. He snapped the journal shut and pushed it away, and let himself cry.

There was nobody around to judge him for being weak now.

* * *

_14th Day on the Island_

_94 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

And then, 2 weeks after he arrived, Vyse was rescued. A passing ship got close enough to be seen with the naked eye, and after Vyse's signal pyre started smoking up a storm, the ship fired a cannonball to acknowledge his presence and altered course to make for his island. Vyse shed happy tears and raced to reclaim his uniform, hoping that the sleek vessel, which looked like a blockade runner or modified cutter, would be friendly to him. If they turned out to be Black Pirates more interested in his head, however, he'd fight through them. He'd taken on worse odds.

Fortune won out, thankfully. The ship was called _The Claudia_, and its captain was a man named Gilder; not a Blue Rogue, but not a Black Pirate either, someone who operated in the nebulous realm in between. He didn't live by a Code, but he preferred to go after Valuan targets.

"I love the mission you Blue Rogues have for yourself, but come on, kid." Gilder said, when he wasn't laughing his head off at Vyse's retelling of the events that had brought him there. He'd given Vyse a good enough look at recent events for Vyse to start noting what day it actually was again, as a part of the retelling. "We're all _pirates_. Who needs all the extra rules?"

Vyse himself looked a mess, but his blue coat had somehow weathered his exile in good shape. He _inhaled_ the food and drink that Gilder put in front of him, his body screaming for more meaningful fare after what he'd been able to get on the island began to make him lose his sense of taste. "The Code of the Blue Rogues acts as a guide. It gives our actions, our decisions, weight." Which was how his father had always explained it. His father, who had never bothered to explain _who he really was._ Vyse paused with the glass of watered down ale halfway to his lips and conceded an amendment. "Of course, it doesn't have all the answers. It probably needs a few additions."

"That's the trouble with rules, kid." Gilder chuckled, taking another sip of his own wine. On his shoulder, a green parrot named 'Willy' fluffed up his feathers and cocked his head to the side, still measuring Vyse up. "You either have too many of them, or too few. That's why I never signed on. I work with Blue Rogues on occasion, though, so you can relax. My boys and I can fix you up. Especially given your successes. We need you back out there in the fight, keeping the Valuans from going nuts."

"Not without my gir...my crew." Vyse said, biting back the last word and hastily replacing it. "The reason I'm such a success is because I don't work alone."

"Any idea where they might have ended up?" Gilder asked, with less flair than before.

"No definite ideas. Just bad ones." Vyse muttered. "Though, given how Rhaknam's storm blew me all the way out here, I'm hopeful that it did the same for them. And with any luck, they were rescued. Sooner than I was."

"Stranger things have been known to happen." Gilder raised up his wineglass and toasted him. Vyse took it for the reassurance it was meant as and smiled back, then looked around Gilder's cabin a little more closely. The walls were covered with portraits of beautiful women, not a one of them looking a day under thirty.

"You have an...interesting taste in decorations."

"Ah, my women of the walls?" Gilder grinned. "I'm a suave, handsome, dashing rogue of an air pirate. I can't help but stumble across them. If they catch my eye and my attentions, I have them sit for a portrait. After we've had our fun, I bid farewell to them as I head out of port, and have another warm memory to add to my collection." Vyse felt the world tip sideways as he swept the room, looking at the dozens of portraits. A sick, gnawing feeling curled up in his belly.

"You just..._use_ them? Lie to them?" He forced out.

Gilder cocked his head a bit. "Now, hold on a second there. Don't go making aspersions against me. I never lie to them. I don't promise them anything more than a night, or maybe a few days of fun and thrilling company. Eventually, I'd get bored with them, or they'd learn to hate me. Women are like sunsets, Vyse. They're beautiful, but there'll be a different one tomorrow."

Vyse ran that line through his head, and immediately thought of Aika and Fina.

He thought of Admiral Belleza, who had offered herself up as a one-night fling back when she'd been in the guise of a Nasrian belly dancer with a ship and a desire to help them. He thought of all the women he'd met since, and tried to apply that logic to them.

It never worked. He always came back to Aika and Fina, who were so much more than a pretty face and a few lines. And he saw nothing but shallowness in Gilder's vaunted ethic.

"I'm amazed that there's a woman who would put up with you." Vyse finally answered. For once, he didn't feel like being polite about the topic to get on someone's good side. "Whatever you think you're sharing with them, it isn't love. It's empty."

Gilder leaned back into his couch a little more, taken aback at Vyse's direct tone. "Ouch. Did I hit a nerve there, Blue Rogue?"

Vyse bit his lip. "You did. Have you ever loved _any_ of the women you've slept with?"

"Several times, usually." Gilder said, sounding amused again. "But I assume you're asking...well, in that case, Vyse, no. We're Air Pirates. It's not exactly a stable career. If I'm not sure if I'll be around in a week or a month from now, what good does it do me to try and hold on to something long-term? It's more trouble than it's worth!" He shivered a bit.

"You remember their names, though. You remember their faces."

"Keeps me warm at night." Gilder chuckled, making a crude gesture with his hand. Vyse rolled his eyes.

"You named your ship _Claudia_, though. Was she a woman who meant more?"

"She's not a woman, she's a _ship_." Gilder snorted. "And she means more to me than any woman I've ever known. The day I find a Claudia out there, I'll turn around and walk away."

Vyse sighed. "I just don't understand why you're so afraid of _trying_ for a more serious relationship."

"Why were you?" Gilder countered, and Vyse froze up again. Gilder pressed on, squinting through his pince-nez glasses. "I couldn't miss how your eyes lit up when you started talking about the two girls on your crew. For as much as you're getting on my case about being a coward in love, did you ever make a move yourself?"

Vyse shut his eyes. "No. I didn't."

"Couldn't decide which one you wanted more then?" Gilder asked.

The laugh was instinctive, short, and sad. Gilder got close to it, close enough Vyse could answer truthfully and still leave him short of the whole picture.

"I really couldn't."

* * *

_Nasrad, Capital of Nasr_

_The Calm Sands Inn_

_96 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

Aika sighed with welcome fatigue inside of their room, glancing at herself in the mirror for any last minute adjustments. While Fina had taken the morning shift, she'd made her way down to the port after some final arrangements at the Sailor's Guild to meet with the owner of the small vessel that she and Fina had decided on. The haggling had gone on for fully half an hour, with the owner talking the ship up and Aika tearing it down with her sharp engineer's eye for flaws. The final number they had decided on ended up being a thousand gold pieces less than his listed asking price, in part because the fellow was in somewhat of a hurry to make the deal and return to Maramba. They'd sealed with a spit-soaked handshake (Nasrian bargainer's style, Aika had learned, revolved around the giving of water to show one's truthfulness) and then she'd had enough time afterwards to ask around the docks and make arrangements for supplies to be delivered the following day before they set out.

The entire process had eaten through her free time, and she'd managed a quick kebab before racing back to get cleaned up again. She would have loved to have a nap as well, but...needs must, and it was their last day of work. She didn't need the tips, they had enough to pay off Fatima as well as their other debts, but the extra money could come in handy later.

The sound of footsteps outside of her door had Aika freezing and then reaching for her boomerang, but the sound of a key being slid into the lock and a very familiar, feminine sigh relaxed her immediately.

Fina came inside, looking worn out but in a good mood. She carried a bag that smelled of the spicy kabal skewers famous in Nasrian cuisine, and a metal bottle slick with moisture on its surface; something cold to drink. She caught Aika watching her, and melted into a warm and affectionate smile.

"Hello, Aika."

"Hey, Princess." Aika replied, marveling at how different the nickname sounded when there was no venom behind it. Now it was just an endearment, one that let the Silvite know exactly how treasured she was. She got up and waited as Fina closed the door, walked over to the room's small table and set her lunch down, then strolled over and pulled her in for a soft hug and a long kiss. "You okay?"

"I'm relieved today was my last day." Fina confessed. "The morning crowd was very sad to see me go." She reached to the coinpurse at her waist and gave it a gentle shake. "They tipped well, and wished us the best."

Aika smirked and hummed a little as Fina rested her head on her shoulder. "I had a busy morning myself. We've got a ship." That made Fina's head come right back up again, and the Silvite's blue eyes gazed right into her own.

"Really? It's done?"

"A thousand less than what he was asking. I've got some crazy bargaining skills, babe."

Fina's eyes danced with mirth. "Hm. You do at that. You talked me into trying out that new position last night, after all."

Aika blushed at the memory, which had been incredibly enjoyable. "You liked it."

"I did. I am curious where you learned it, though."

Doing her best not to think of the rest of the gossip she'd overheard from a pair of belly dancers who'd come in for a drink on her solo shift a few days ago, Aika shook her head. "Amazing what you pick up in a port city." She pulled her arms free of Fina and went on. "We've also got the supplies for our trip on order. As soon as we get paid tomorrow and settle up our bills, we'll have a ship and everything we'll need to get outfitted waiting for us. And then…"

Fina's grin widened. "And then we go and find Vyse."

"Damn right we will, Princess." Aika promised. "And this time, I'm not letting him get away from us."

"Good." Fina hummed. "When we were separated, it was still eating him apart, trying to sort out how he felt about us. We can save him. Because it's not wrong, how he feels."

And Aika had to close her eyes and reflect on that. She'd been as lost as Vyse had been, up until Fina had made her own feelings clear. She loved Vyse, but she loved Fina as well. And Fina loved both of them, just as Vyse loved her and Fina. And it was okay. It was different from what she'd been taught about love, but _different_ didn't mean _wrong_.

"He can love us both. It's not wrong." Aika mused happily. "It's _right_." She missed him terribly. She was running on the hope of finding him, rescuing him. Showing him just how much she loved him. Making up for all the wasted time. She should have told him she loved him when they had left for Valua after Fina. She should have told him when they turned 16.

She would tell him now, and be doubly blessed to have two people in her life that wanted to be with her through everything that might come their way.

Aika opened her eyes when Fina's arms wrapped around her again, and shivered as the Silvite began nibbling on the side of her neck and slid a pair of dextrous fingers past her waist. "Ah! Fina, I...I can't…" She stammered, squirming a bit under the other girl's skilled touch. "My shift, my shift starts in an hour."

Fina hummed playfully, pulled away from her neck and the hickey she'd left there to lick at her earlobe. "I told them you were sick already."

"Wuh...what?" Aika let out a muffled whimper as Fina's roaming fingers slipped into her cleft.

"I figured either you'd need the day to put yourself back together or...we'd be busy."

To the abyss with it all. Aika grabbed at Fina's wrist and pulled her free before whirling about and sinking her hands into the Silvite's blond hair. "Well." Aika purred. "I suppose I do feel a little warm…"

It was their last night in Nasrad, and Aika sang the girl's praises as they fell into each other. And by the time they finished, Fina's kabal skewers had gone cold and the lemonade had turned warm.

Fina didn't mind in the slightest.

* * *

_97 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Nasrad_

The _Claudia_ had been two hours out from Nasrad when they had been intercepted by a ship that meant them no harm, but which Captain Gilder preferred to avoid at all costs. "Clara." He muttered with a grimace as he then shouted the orders to his crew to implement a plan that they seemed all too familiar with. "Come on, Vyse! You and me are headed for the captain's launch! We'll go one way and the _Claudia_ will go the other, taking Clara and her all-female crew of swooning lunatics clear of us!"

"Why in blazes are we running if she doesn't want to hurt you?!" Vyse snapped, keeping on his heels.

"She wants to _marry me_, kid! It doesn't get much more harmful than that!" Gilder replied, skipping steps as they headed down to the stern launch bay. Vyse stumbled a bit, but kept up with him, and sure enough, once the launch was clear and hidden in a cloud bank, the _Claudia_ turned and fled, leading the _Primrose_ north, away from Gilder who sank into his seat. "Unbelievable. We had _one date_, and then Calamity Clara decides I'm the man she's destined to be with."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing?" Vyse asked. Gilder stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. Vyse shrugged. "You said you were afraid of commitment because it wouldn't be right letting them worry about whether or not they'd ever see you again. But this 'Calamity Clara' is a Blue Rogue." And one Vyse had heard about, if only in the broad strokes. She kept her ship and its cannons tuned for long-range combat, and the Valuan bounty board showed her as a minor nuisance, since she usually ran off once things moved to close-range, and she never suffered a boarding action. "Seems to me she takes the same risks you do. You'd do better fighting together."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Gilder said, rubbing at an ear with a wince.

Vyse chuckled and leaned against the wall of the launch's wheelhouse. "So, where was _her_ portrait on your wall?"

"...Behind the couch. Left side. The redhead." Gilder grumbled, and Vyse let his memory flicker back to the ship, until he recalled a vague image of the picture in question. She'd been a looker, although one that preferred old-fashioned dresses ill-suited for combat. "In some ways, Vyse, she's even more frightening than the Armada."

Vyse chuckled. "She's a Blue Rogue, Gilder. How bad could she be?"

"Agree to disagree." Gilder said, and let the subject drop.

Arriving at Nasrad, they left their ship parked at the docks, the two ventured into the city. They stopped off long enough at an inn called _The Calm Sands_ to make arrangements for a room with two beds, and then Gilder excused himself for a trip to the local pub while Vyse made straight for Nasrad's Sailor's Guild office. The Discoveries he'd found while sailing the North Ocean and the Valuan mainland got him quite a bit in coin as the guildmaster copied over the necessary information from his sailor's journal, but Vyse was disheartened to learn that even with that added boost in his finances, there were no ships which were within his price range.

"There was one that we brokered a sale for yesterday. I'm afraid you just missed out on the opportunity." The guildmaster apologized. Vyse sighed and thanked the man, then headed out. He almost stopped in at the pub, but decided against it and headed back to the Calm Sands Inn, still exhausted after his long residence on the deserted island. He flopped back on his mattress and daydreamed for a good twenty minutes, then sat back up and winced as he felt the folded up scrap of vellum he'd stuffed there days ago. It was the half of the treasure map he'd found on Gonzales' corpse, and staring at it, he still couldn't quite make out the details.

He was still looking at it when their room door opened and Gilder came strolling in, hardly fazed at all by whatever he'd been drinking.

"Hey, sport. Sorry that took so…" Gilder started, then he caught sight of what Vyse was reading. "Holy Moons." Vyse and Gilder heard noise out in the hallway, and Gilder quickly stepped into the room and closed their door, locking it. He came over and sat down beside Vyse. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Part of a treasure map." Vyse said. "There was another stranded sailor who'd died on the island you found me on before. His name was Gonzales, and he had been holding on to this."

"May I?" Gilder asked, holding out his hand. Vyse gave it about a second's thought, then handed it over. Gilder stared at it for a good minute, then broke out into laughter. "Oh, this is _incredible_. If I'm right, Vyse, this...this could lead us to _Daccat's Treasure!"_

Vyse blinked at the name. Daccat had been a feared Air Pirate in the age before the Valuan Empire rose to prominence. It had been rumored that he'd plundered the lands under each of the moons, but the accepted thinking was that he'd only sailed in Mid-Ocean and the North Ocean, which made sense, given how Ixa'taka had gone unnoticed by the world until Valua stumbled across it during their expansion. He'd been a holy terror, then vanished into the skies, never to be seen again.

And apparently he'd vanished somewhere awfully close by, if he read the outline of the Valuan coast correctly.

"How much do you think Daccat's treasure is worth?" Vyse asked.

"Hell. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Maybe millions." Gilder chuckled. "And with this, I think we stand a decent chance of finding it." He handed the map back to Vyse. "What do you say, kid? You up for a little treasure hunt?"

Vyse hesitated. He needed to find the girls, but the fact of the matter was...he was still down a ship. And Gilder had been generous, but he had his own ship and crew to look after.

"Deal." Vyse said, nodding solemnly. "But I'm buying a ship with my half. I have to find them, Gilder. I'm not going to sleep right until I know they're safe."

"You could buy a fleet of ships if this pans out, Vyse." Gilder reminded him. He slapped Vyse on the back and got up from the bed with a grin. "Come on! We'll buy some supplies and then shove off!"

Vyse started to get up, but paused. "I almost forgot, Gilder. There's one more stop we have to make before we take off."

"Where?"

"I have to see the Nasultan and warn him. The Valuans are planning an invasion of Nasrad."

Gilder's grin faded a little. "How do you know that? Picked up some intelligence while you were in Valua?"

"Interrogated a soldier. They're putting together a new Fleet under a new Admiral, someone called Ramirez. Supposedly he was Galcian's old Vice Commander."

"We can try, but we might be waiting for a while." Gilder pointed out, opening the door and leading Vyse back out. "The Nasultan's palace is well-guarded, and he's not the sort who speaks to common folks."

"He'll listen to me." Vyse resolved. "The fate of his kingdom, and the only military force able to stand up to Valua's aggression, rests on it."

He hated it, but the girls and Daccat's treasure would have to wait for a few more hours. He had to first try and make sure there was a world for them to come back to.

* * *

_Nasrian Airspace_

_Evening_

In the wheelhouse of the small ship that they'd worked for two weeks to purchase, Aika and Fina sailed north away from Nasrad, towards the wilderness off of the Valuan coastline. The sunset faded into the west through the port window, and even with Aika doing the flying, Fina stayed close at her side, hugging one arm around the redhead's waist.

After setting out to get their last paychecks, the duo had made one last stop back at _The Calm Sands_ to settle their room bill with Fatima and had found an exhausted old homeless man. They'd gotten him inside and made Fatima make him something to eat and drink, and then listened as the bald and mustachioed man, who called himself Pedro, spoke of a friend lost long ago, a promise made, and a map to a great treasure split in half and never reunited.

He had stayed with Fatima and handed them his half of the map that he and his friend Gonzales had split apart in their youth, having no interest in a dream deferred. For the girls, it was a lifeline. To find Vyse, they would need a bigger ship, a crew. Daccat's treasure, as the map promised lay somewhere in the wilderness, would give them all the money they would need to make it happen.

"He might be somewhere out here." Fina mused quietly, giving Aika's waist a soft squeeze. "The storm blew us out of Valua. It probably did the same thing to him. And if he'd been captured by Valua, we would have heard about it."

"No news being good news, is what you're saying." Aika hummed. "This ship is sturdy, but the engine's not the most powerful one out there. We'll need to find somewhere to weigh anchor for the night so we can get some sleep. Keep your eyes out for a stationary island. Unlike in the Southern Ocean, we won't have to worry about being blown around like a top all the time."

The memory made Fina shiver a little, but she didn't panic. "I'm still sleeping with you, even if the winds aren't howling."

Aika laughed once and leaned her head over, kissing Fina's forehead. "Then we'll have an extra bunk to store all the treasure we're going to find, won't we Princess?"

Fina hummed in reply, leaning her head on Aika's shoulder. It was so easy to lapse into trusting quiet with her. Fina never said more than she needed to, but when she spoke, it was with purpose; she said what she _had to_.

"What do you think it will be like, when we find Vyse?" Fina asked. "Sharing a bed with him?"

"It'll probably be crowded." Aika deadpanned, getting a laugh from her lover. She smiled at the reaction and kept on. "But, I think...I think there will be some nights we'll put him in the middle when we cuddle. And there'll be nights where it's you in the middle."

"And nights when Vyse and I are cuddled around you." Fina added warmly. "He's not complete without the both of us. And neither am I, without the both of you. You're no less important, Aika. You know that, right?"

Aika bit her lip, and held onto the singing joy surging in her chest. "I do now."

Fina sniffed once. "I swear by the grace of the Silver Moon, I will spend every day reminding you of that, until you no longer doubt it."

"Shh." Aika leaned her head on top of Fina's, staring out over the horizon. "It's okay. One thing at a time, Fina. First, we find Daccat's treasure…"

Fina squeezed her again. "...And then we find Vyse."


	18. The Greatest Treasure

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Eighteen: The Greatest Treasure**

_Daccat's Island_

_102 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

If there was a word that characterized Gilder, air pirate captain of the gunship _Claudia_, it was, to his mind, **freedom**. Freedom from oppressive governments, freedom from tariffs and taxes, and freedom from a code. He fought against Valua whenever he could manage minimal losses and maximize his gains, he detested the merciless tactics of the Black Pirates, and he considered the Blue Rogues too stifling to ally with completely. He preferred to live by his own rules, few as they were.

That driving need for freedom extended to his love life as well; unwilling to make a commitment to any woman that might result in her being widowed, or worse, widowed with a child, Gilder favored one night stands...or long weekends, for an especially beautiful and charming woman. As a child, he'd taken up drawing and painting for fun, but found piracy to be a far more exciting career. Still, the walls of his stateroom were covered in portraits he'd taken of all the women he'd 'known', to use the old colloquialism. His women on the walls, nothing but a picture, a name, and a fond memory as he sailed on. Aside from one particularly persistent she-devil of a Blue Rogue, most women accepted his lifestyle. He had the open skies, he had his ship and crew, and he had his health and his hobbies. It was enough for the 32 year old air pirate.

Finding a marooned Blue Rogue on one of the southernmost islands in the frontier lands had been an unexpected surprise, and even more surprising to find that it was Vyse the Bold, as he was called on the Valuan bounty boards. He'd worked his way up to two stars, not quite as impressive as 'Gilder The Unfettered', but fast working his way up the chain. Or at least he had been before he'd been separated from his crew and lost. And damn if the boy didn't tell some thrilling stories of his adventures.

Damn if the boy didn't also have a constantly haunted look about him as well.

Gilder was no fool; buried within the stories about their exploits in surviving pirate hunters, Valuan treachery and _Gigas_ of all Moons-damned things, there was a constant undertone when he spoke about the two girls on his crew, Aika and Fina. Aika, his friend since childhood, his strong right hand, and Fina, a girl who fell out of the sky and started the mess of his journey. He smiled when he spoke of them. His voice rang with sadness and haunted longing in equal measure. If Vyse had merely had a fling with one of them, or both, he wouldn't be as bad off.

But he had made the mistake of falling in love with them.

Both of them. He looked at Gilder and was disgusted out of his failure to commit.

Gilder looked at Vyse and saw a living cautionary tale, a man who punished himself continually for what was in his heart. Vyse had laughed when Gilder had pressed him on why he'd never made a move on either of the girls, and it was a laugh that wanted desperately to be a sob.

He really couldn't choose. And Gilder was grateful he'd never had to.

* * *

What Vyse needed, Gilder thought as he sat at the bar and enjoyed his first shorebound drink of Nasrian ale in weeks, was a distraction. The boy would sit and wither in worry if he was given the chance. He was so fixated on finding the girls that he was losing the spark of life which, by the tales of his exploits that Vyse had told him and Gilder had only heard rumors of beforehand, was so necessary to his success. Maybe if he got the two cuties who'd wandered in to collect their last paychecks while he'd been drinking, but...well. They had places to be, and didn't spare Gilder more than a second glance. So, no distraction to be found in women, though it was doubtful Vyse would _let himself be distracted_ by other women in the first place, not when he was so tunneled in on the two he'd lost.

To find out that Vyse had been hanging on to a scrap of a treasure map, and one that led to _Daccat's_ rumored treasure horde? An absolute blessing. Vyse had been willing to go along, even if he tempered the expedition's purpose by stating flatly that he'd be buying a new ship with his portion of the treasure so he could go looking for Aika and Fina. After they spent hours pleading for an audience with the Nasultan, being let in and left to wait for another hour more, and then having Vyse's worried warning about the massing Valuan threat being dismissed out of hand, both Vyse and Gilder had been in a right mood. Vyse, more than Gilder, who'd treated the odds of being taken seriously by royalty as minimal at best.

They set out late that evening after the sun had already gone down, with Vyse taking the helm and guiding the ship along through the darkness by red moonlight and starlight. Gilder let him, and took the wheel the next morning to let the exhausted boy finally get some sleep.

Days of sailing later, they'd managed to get a clue by first finding the strange formation on the Valuan continental coastline Vyse dubbed 'Skull Rock', and then following its gaze into the mess of smaller islands in the middle reaches of the frontier lands, where the sky turned from blue to an ominous orange. And sure enough, when they made for one of the largest islands that was along the direct path from Skull Rock's long-distant gaze (And wasn't that a mark of how skilled a sailor Vyse was, to keep their heading in spite of the crosswind?), Vyse caught sight of an obscure detail in the foliage below. To the unobservant, it would have seemed that the bushes merely grew funny, or that the elements and the ground had carved their layout into a specific formation.

But when they laid anchor and descended on the northern side of the island, hiding their ship out of clear view of the skies, and wandered to where the odd formation of flora was, it only took a single glance at the ground for Gilder to realize that Vyse had been right all along. He tapped the ground in disbelief, which still bore the scorch marks of powerful red magic.

"That's one way to leave an indicator." Gilder said, sizing up the swath of earth which had been razed so that only the smallest of grasses would grow in its wake.

Vyse chuckled and stood back up, a handful of the grass in his palm. "Stone monuments can be broken, and are too obvious a clue. No, Daccat knew what he was doing. To anyone just flying around, they would miss this. But for someone who followed Skull Rock, the sight of a skull formed out of the natural growth would be a subtle enough sign."

And then, after another hour of searching, they'd found an entrance to the island's hidden underground; a doorway marked with a salamander, and a large stone slab in front of it.

Gilder knew they were on the right track then.

"Daccat flew two ships. He supposedly captained both, but in truth, he was more of an admiral." He explained to Vyse. "One was the _Salamander_, and the other was the _Scorpion_. Legends were that both ships were captained by fearsome women who were always at each other's throats; Daccat kept them from killing each other, and they eventually became friends." He shrugged. "When Daccat disappeared, so did they. Nobody even remembers their names anymore, just their ships."

"Isn't that stupid." Vyse muttered bitterly. Gilder sighed, conceding the kid had a point. Gilder had stood on the stone slab in front of the mural and nothing had happened. Vyse stood on it with him for a solid minute while they were discussing the past and nothing had happened.

And then, suddenly, _something happened_. The stone slab gave out and sank inches into the ground...and the barrier with the marking of a salamander on it began to slide open.

Vyse looked to Gilder, and Gilder looked back at him.

"What did you do?" Vyse asked him.

"Nothing." Gilder answered. "What did _you_ do?"

"...Nothing." Vyse huffed softly and stared into the darkness ahead of them. He pulled out his cutlasses and ran a low level charge of spiritual energy through them, enough to make the blades shine as brightly as a torch. "Maybe we're expected."

"Far be it from me to refuse an invitation." Gilder chuckled, and checked the charge on his pistols.

* * *

Daccat's Maze, as Gilder took to thinking of it, was a truly curious beast. At first, there'd just been a corridor with a few off-branching paths; treasure chests protected by well-hidden traps that unleashed moonstone-powered rough automatons on them. Nothing they couldn't deal with, especially for as aged as they were, but an inconvenience all the same. There had been more stone slabs barring the way forward, bearing Daccat's emblem of a hatted skull over cutlasses, and levers that altered nothing.

And yet, after Vyse and Gilder threw the massive toggles that did nothing, almost exactly one minute later for the first, and about half that time for the second, the blocking slabs moved of their own volition to guide them forward.

Corkscrewing ladders that led to treasure chests and the route forward and to open air proved especially challenging, because they would turn a lever to change it, start forward, and have to scramble back as the thing moved. Temperamental, haunted equipment aside, they eventually delved through caverns with more treasure chests (And even a Moonfish, Vyse claimed, through Gilder couldn't see what he was shooting a net at to save his life and had trouble believing he'd caught anything, even as the near invisible thing squirmed in a sack) and even monsters that had crawled up from the chasms beneath and made a home for themselves. They carried with them a small cache of gold, a set of antique chainmail armor meant to be worn under ones' outer vestments and sized for a man, and had even fought off a treasure hunter that Vyse was _livid_ to see still living by the name of Zivilyn Bane, who knocked Gilder into a wall from an explosive pouch before Vyse almost gutted the bastard and chased him away.

At the end of all of those crazy traps, caverns, and mechanisms, they found themselves in a massive cylindrical room, with steps that rotated on complex, rusted gimbals and platforms that were welded along support struts to the far wall. Through trial and error and careful prodding, Gilder and Vyse managed to rig up a system where they'd change the position of the walkways and _wait_ for something to happen. Something usually did, and whatever was causing the changes seemed to respond to their timing. After the harrowing close calls earlier in the maze, to have at last a sense of cooperation with the spirits that haunted Daccat's legacy was nothing short of a miracle.

And then…

_And then_…

They stood on the main platform in the room, on top of yet another slab, one of steel and waited. And after ten long seconds, it sank into the platform, and ancient gears and machinery groaned out of rusted disuse and cranked the entire room around, until they were lined up with a sealed doorway. As soon as the mechanisms locked in, the last Daccat door opened, and they went on ahead.

Along a darkened tunnel that turned a sharp corner and sloped upwards, Vyse sighed and held his glowing swords ahead of their path, one low to the ground for obstacles and the other above his head.

"This is one strange treasure vault." Vyse said in a low murmur. "It's like the place is haunted."

"Yes, you've said that before." Gilder pointed out.

"I was dangling from a ledge, I had a good reason to say it." Vyse snorted. He took point and let Gilder sweep in behind, pistols ready to fire. It had served them well during the ambushes from the cave monsters before. "But seriously. We pull a lever. Nothing happens. And then something does. We stand on a switch, and _nothing happens_, and then something _does_."

Gilder did his best not to shiver, although it was hard, for as cool and dry as the cave was. "Ghosts aren't real, Vyse."

"Never said they were. Aika thought that there was a ghost in Rixis and it turned out to be that stupid priest who'd scarpered off with the Green Moon Crystal before we got there. But there's _something_ going on here, and I don't understand it, and I don't like it."

"Then we deal with it." Gilder shrugged, trying for confidence. "Isn't that a part of your Code, too? About not quitting?"

"Close. The line is, _Blue Rogues never back down from a greater danger._"

"...That's a mouthful right there." Gilder muttered, smiling when Vyse finally laughed.

"It could use a little editing." Vyse conceded, which made it twice now by Gilder's count that the young Blue Rogue had said something to the effect that their Code needed some work. "But it's still useful as a framework."

"Making all sorts of plans in that head of yours. What would dear old Daddy Dyne say?" Gilder joked.

And then something hard fell over Vyse's features, and the humor drained out of him faster than a broken wine cask. "I don't give a damn what he thinks." Gilder choked on his laugh, stunned at the stormclouds in his young associate's eyes, and fell silent. He suddenly didn't want to poke at that can of worms. Vyse took in a long breath, held it, then let it out. "Come on." They finished climbing up the tunnel and turned another sharp corner, and found...another stone slab on the ground. Vyse looked to Gilder, raised an eyebrow, and the two stepped onto it.

It shifted and sank into the floor three seconds later.

Past one last Daccat-sigiled door, they found themselves staring into a (Finally!) well-lit room, with a narrow path to a large platform at the center, a second path ten feet to their left, and at the far end of the room was an elevated section of room with…

_The biggest freaking treasure chest that Gilder had ever seen in his __**life**__._

"Jackpot!" Gilder laughed, and he and Vyse shot ahead, the boy quickly outpacing him. Gilder kept on laughing, knowing that boyish enthusiasm would always beat him out. "Just look at the size of that chest! We're going to be _rich_!"

That was the primary thought in his head up until he heard a very audible echoed gasp from behind him and off to the side. Then he whirled about, guns halfway up to firing position, on edge after too many hours of close calls and spine-chilling coincidences. "Who's there?!"

The shout that came back was young, shrill, and all too clearly feminine. "Who's there yourself?!" Gilder blinked at the thunder in that tone, not quite sure how to react to it.

Vyse, on the other hand, let out a shuddering and very audible gasp and looked like he'd either been struck over the head, or like he was a man in the desert who had suddenly seen an oasis. He stumbled forward, emerging from behind (He'd been _ahead _of Gilder, the air pirate realized, hidden from the woman who had come up at their rear).

And then the female voice let out a shaky gasp. "Is...Wait, that…"

"That's...I don't believe it..." Two women emerged from the shadows of the second entrance that had been on their left as they walked into the room. Two women that Gilder had seen in passing and recognized with vague familiarity, before he glanced sideways at Vyse and…

And the Blue Rogue _crumbled_ and fell to his knees, his eyes never leaving the two women.

Oh.

Oh, _Abyss damn it all_, those two were…

"Vyse!" The both of the women, Aika and Fina as Gilder now placed them by their happy squeals and the boy's poleaxed, open longing, came running into the antechamber at full tilt. The one in the silvery dress slowed her pace as she neared, but the fiery pigtailed redhead charged and hit Vyse at a full out run, wrapping her arms around him before rocking him back in a flying hug. She was laughing like her life depended on it, and Vyse could do nothing but match it with an incredulous guffaw and hold her back.

"We thought...We _hoped_, we didn't dare think otherwise…" The redhead, Aika as Gilder placed her by the boomerang on her back and the glove on her left hand she used to wield it, stammered away, her eyes misting up rapidly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, if you hate me it's okay, but I'm so glad you're both all right…" Vyse fumbled rapidly through his own words, as if he had said them a hundred times and now at the critical moment, tried to get them all out before he forgot them.

"We were going to come find you after this…"

"I was going to buy a ship and come find you…" Vyse said at the same time, and the two paused in disbelief as their dialogue overlapped and synchronized. Then they both fell apart, laughing like loons while Fina, giggling and wiping at tearful eyes, stepped over and knelt beside the duo still crouched on the stone platform.

And then Aika, her arms still hugging Vyse tight, leaned in and kissed the young Blue Rogue hard enough to make him go stiff.

Maybe in more ways than one, Gilder chuckled under his breath. But after she pulled back, still deliriously joyful, the happiness and hope Vyse had been showing had melted away into panic.

"Aika, you...I can't...I…" He stammered out, about two steps from looking as miserable as before. But Aika shook her head, still humming.

"It's okay, Vyse." The redhead said reassuringly, and pulled away

"No, but it's not…" He started, still lost to panic as his eyes flickered between the two. And then Fina stopped him cold by raising a hand to the side of his face and keeping him from twisting away. She took Aika's place and pushed him back, and somehow Vyse managed to twist his legs underneath him to land with them sprawled out in front of him instead of stuck behind, and Fina slipped into his lap before wrapping her own arms around him, smiling as warmly as a gentle spring sun.

"It _is_ okay." Fina hummed, and leaned in and kissed him gentler than Aika had, but no less meaningfully.

Gilder stared, and when Fina pulled back with an appreciative hum, Aika knelt down beside and between the two.

Vyse looked between the two girls, stunned, and Aika chuckled. "Okay. Vyse? I want you to shut up for a second and _pay attention_. Can you do that?" He blinked, and Aika went on. "I love you." He blinked again.

"And I love you." Fina chimed in, and his focus switched. "But I also love Aika." And to make _that point_ abundantly clear, the blonde-haired girl leaned over and gave Aika another soft kiss.

"So, when you say you love the _both_ of us?" Aika said after, blushing a bit from the unexpected, but welcome attention of the other girl. She shrugged. "It's okay."

Vyse breathed hard for a few more seconds, and then slumped forward, and Fina made a noise of surprise as she caught him.

"I...It's okay?" He whispered.

"Yes, Vyse." Fina soothed him, stroking his back.

"I love you both." He went on, sobbing openly. "I couldn't choose. I can't choose. And neither of...neither of you are…"

"Shh." Aika and Fina both hugged him hard after that, silencing him. They shared a look after that, and the two nodded at some unspoken message that Vyse didn't even have a clue had been passed, his head pressed against Fina's shoulder.

It was important to them, Gilder realized. When Vyse finally did pull himself back together, Aika put a proper spin on the mood by scowling and poking him in the chest.

"But from now on, Vyse, you don't go anywhere alone. Got it, buster?"

Eyes still wet with tears, Vyse laughed once and kissed Fina on the cheek, then reached a hand behind Aika's head and pulled her in for a deep kiss that, by her muffled squeak, she hadn't been expecting.

Her eyes shone when he let go of her, and his own smile began to change into the cocky grin that Gilder had always thought Vyse possessed, based on the stories about him.

"Then I guess you're both stuck with me." Vyse decided, looking over to Fina. "Or I'm stuck with you."

Fina leaned her head against Aika's shoulder. "We'll figure it out." She agreed, looking remarkably peaceful.

* * *

Gilder took it upon himself to finish walking the rest of the way up to the treasure chest while Vyse and his women sat there hugging (_No, _they were not _snuggling_, Gilder couldn't _handle that_ thought right now) and saying nothing at all aside from roaming fingers and eyes and lips.

"Now let's see what kind of reward good old Daccat left for us." Gilder announced in a loud and overly cheerful voice, hoping that it would snap the three kids out of their romantic daydreams.

There was a pause behind him as he fiddled with the heavy lid, and then shuffling as the three unwrapped themselves. Vyse was at his side shortly after, and helped Gilder to push the lid up and back. The chest fell open without any drama at all, and the two of them peered inside while Aika and Fina came up behind them. Grinning, Gilder leaned over, his mind dancing with thoughts of heaps of gold coins, exotic gems, expensive jewelry from a hundred different ports of call…

It all came to a crashing halt when his eyes sat nothing but an empty chest, devoid of any object save for a single golden coin emblazoned with Daccat's seal, and a withered old scrap of parchment, yellowed with age.

"That's it?" Aika's despondent voice came from over Gilder's shoulder. "An empty chest?"

"Almost." Gilder muttered, reaching inside and picking up the lone gold coin, holding it up so everyone could see. Vyse went for the scrap of parchment, using the zooming lens on the goggle to focus in on the weathered, flowing script.

"He left a note for us too." Vyse said. "Hang on, his cursive's a little archaic, but...No, I've got it. '_Brave souls that come seeking my treasure...do not be discouraged. You already have the most valuable treasure in the world. Comrades, trust, and cooperation. Those are the only true treasures in this world."_

Vyse turned and looked at the others with his eyebrows up almost to his hair. Aika swore and stomped her foot into the floor, which startled Fina a bit.

Gilder had to laugh. "That old bastard got us!" He fitted in between guffaws. "Oh, wow. Who knew that Daccat was such a prankster?"

"It wasn't a prank." Fina explained, recovering faster than the others. "He wasn't wrong."

"If I'd gotten as much treasure as Daccat had, I would have spent it all when I had the chance too, I guess." Vyse sighed.

"Would it have killed him to leave a little bit for us for our troubles?" Aika whined.

"He did." Gilder said, flipping the coin and then depositing it in Vyse's palm. "Just enough to tell the story."

"Besides, Aika, we needed the treasure to buy a ship so we could go looking for Vyse." Fina pointed out. She put an arm around Vyse's waist and smirked. "We don't need a ship anymore though."

"Well, I wouldn't _mind_ having a ship." Vyse rationalized. "I mean...Drachma…" And there he paused, realizing something.

Aika caught on first. "The old man didn't make it, did he?" And Vyse breathed and shook his head.

"Last I saw of him, he was in the back of the _Little Jack_, burning out of control, being dragged away by Rhaknam by the Harpoon Cannon's line. I don't think he could have made it, even if he somehow got clear of the Valuans." Vyse bit his lip. "In the end, though...he figured out what was important. I think, anyways. He got us off the boat. I asked him to come with us, but he was a captain to the end. He went down with his ship."

"One-Armed Drachma was always a peculiar sort of fella." Gilder mused. "But if you three managed to get along with him, that's a feather in your cap. So. We've got a single gold coin, a letter, and an empty dungeon with one hell of a story to tell. And by some miracle, you two managed to find this place just like we did. How did you manage that?"

"Got half of a treasure map off of an old guy named Pedro in Nasrad." Aika explained. "We'd been working there for a couple of weeks to get enough money to buy a skiff. We followed it here."

"Interesting." Vyse said. "_We_ found this place from half of a treasure map too. I got it off of the corpse of a marooned sailor named Gonzales on the island I was stuck on…"

_"Gonzales?!"_ Aika exclaimed.

"You were marooned?!" Fina uttered in the same breath.

Vyse looked between them, then wordlessly dug in his back pocket and unfolded his half of the vellum map that pointed to Daccat's island. Two heartbeats later, Aika pulled out a similar half of the map and held it up next to Vyse's.

A perfect fit.

Laughing was the only reasonable course of action after that. It beat cursing out the Moons for coincidence or destiny.

* * *

_The Frontier Lands_

_102 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

After leaving Daccat's puzzling dungeon behind, Vyse had insisted (With the girl's forceful agreement) that they were _not_ splitting apart again, that they were going to go to _their ship first_, take off, and then go find the girl's skiff, and they were going to fly back to Nasrad _together_. Gilder let it go, figuring that Vyse meant to keep the two women he loved beyond reasonable measure close by, and that he would be spending the days with them and the nights in his own bunk.

But after flying with the ships all but tied together in a near double-hulled formation and then laying anchor off of one of the larger islands in the frontier lands, Vyse had been taken aside after dinner by the two girls, who had been whispering to each other all day when they were alone. They'd spoken in soft tones while Gilder watched with a sense of growing dread, and sure enough, Vyse's eyes shot wide open as he looked between them, blushing madly. Fina was unflappable, but Aika, who Gilder had earmarked as brash and confident and wildly aggressive, had shrank into herself during the talk, seeming shy and unsure of herself.

Then Vyse had taken Aika's hand into his, and she looked up, and Vyse smiled at her before kissing her. He went gently at first, before she melted into his embrace and pulled her arm fast behind his head to hold him closer still. When they separated, the nervousness remained, but she wasn't as afraid, especially after Fina leaned in and gave each of them a lingering kiss of her own before stepping back and nodding, giving Aika a small bag of something that made the redhead blush even more.

And then the two went first into the smaller ship's wheelhouse and then belowdecks to whatever cabin waited below. Fina, smiling with a distant look in her eyes, had walked across the gangplank between their moored vessels and taken a seat beside Gilder, folding her arms in her lap.

"I am told there is a second bed on your private yacht here. I will be using it tonight."

Gilder blinked. "But...Then Vyse…"

"Will be spending the night with Aika." The Silvite explained primly. And didn't seem the least bit disturbed by it. "Do you have any tea? A variety with less caffeine would be appreciated."

"Uh. Caffeine?" Gilder asked hesitantly. "What's that? I mean, there's some black tea down in the galley, but…"

"Never mind, I'll figure it out." She rose up to her feet again, smoothed out a single wrinkle on her long skirt, and looked to him again. "Do you care for some?"

"If you're making it, I wouldn't turn down a cup. It usually takes me a bit to wind down." Gilder thanked her. "Especially after today."

Fina laughed at that, her voice musical and airy. "Very well. Two mugs it is." She disappeared for a good ten minutes, which gave Gilder enough time to glance over at the adjoining ship a dozen times over before glancing to his own wheelhouse and the stairs he knew were there. There were so many things about those three that didn't make any sense to him, their 'relationship' chief among them.

He heard a muffled squeak, as if yelped through closed fingers come from the other ship, and he blushed a little. For a moment, he felt guilty of being a voyeur, but it wasn't quite true; he wasn't lingering outside of their door. He was on his own blasted yacht, they were just being loud!

Fina reappeared on the edge of his sight, two mugs of steaming tea in hand. She took one and held it out to him, and Gilder nodded at her gratefully. The blonde-haired girl leaned up against the railing next to him in an easy and graceful motion, and hummed a single low note to herself as she looked over to the ship where Vyse and Aika were…

Were…

"You seem upset." Fina ventured, pausing with the mug next to her lips. "What is troubling you, Mr. Gilder?"

"I'm still trying to figure out..._this_." Gilder said, waving a hand vaguely at the ship before motioning to the girl who had asked him what was on his mind. "Right now, Vyse and Aika are...are over there, and he's…" Gilder froze, wondering what to say next. Fina just raised an eyebrow, sipping her tea delicately and waiting for him to go on. Gilder glared at her. "You know what I'm going to say."

Fina swallowed and lowered her mug of tea down, fixing him with a smile. "Deflowering her. Opening her petals. Breaking her chastity." She paused, then went on with a bit of a laugh. "Making love. Having sex. Plowing her field. Staking his claim. Making her a woman."

Gilder huffed. He'd heard all of them, of course, but… "You definitely aren't shy about it."

"What is there to be shy about, exactly?" Fina shrugged. "They're in love. It's natural. There's no shame in it."

"I'm just...it's a lot to take in, really." Gilder admitted. "And how can you be so calm about it? How can you _both_ love him? How can you _both_ love each other? How is that fair to any of you?"

"Do you have a problem with Aika and me being lovers?"

"No, that doesn't bother me." Gilder shrugged. "I've seen women who were with other women and men who were with other men. Got two on my crew who are together, even. We don't treat 'em any different, they're good sailors."

She hummed again. "So your problem is not that I'm attracted to men or women, it's that I am attracted to a man _and_ a woman."

Gilder stared down into his cup and tried to think of a way to phrase his worry that didn't make him sound like an ass. "People are...they get jealous. They **don't** share. In love, especially. I can count dozens of sailors I've known who have been attacked by jilted lovers once they found out that they were being cheated on. How can you sit here, at peace with the world, while your man is over there making the beast with two backs?"

"There's your problem, Gilder." Fina explained, sounding like an instructor going over some old primary school lesson on grammar or mathematics. "You think that love is something like a zero-sum game. It _isn't_. You have no idea just how long Vyse was beating himself up over his feelings for us. He thought he was _sick_, or _perverted_. That because he held two women in his heart instead of just one, that there was something _wrong_ with him. When Aika went to him weeks ago and offered herself to him, he…" And there, Fina's voice strained from so much pain that it cracked, and she had to close her eyes and turn her head away.

Gilder breathed as soft as he could, stunned at her loss of composure and the sheer amount of _hurt_ that she radiated. "It _broke_ her." Fina finally whispered, and she rubbed her free hand along the sleeve of the arm holding her tea, like she was trying to hug herself. "If she hadn't had me…" The young woman paused again, something in her eyes glimmering with so much more wisdom than she should have had by years lived alone.

But then it was gone, washed away, and she took another sip of tea. "The wealth of the ages for a cup of coffee." She said softly, and then pressed on. "Vyse told us about you, you know."

"I should have known he'd gossip." Gilder huffed. Fina smiled at that, and something menacing lingered in her eyes for a bit, making him stop. "All good things, I hope?"

"For the most part." The girl conceded, looking up when the sound of wild, happy laughter shattered the peace of the night; Aika's laughter, and then Vyse's met it. Fina giggled a little under her breath at that. "He did, however, say you have a different approach to your...relations."

"I make no promises I can't keep." Gilder said, immediately defensive. "There's nothing wrong with the way I live. I'm not hurting any of the women I'm with, they know I'm not looking for a commitment. That I can't guarantee one." He turned it back on her after that. "Why aren't you in there with them? Isn't that how it works, if he loves the both of you and you're both..._okay_ with that?"

Fina nodded. "In time, yes. But not tonight."

"Why?" Gilder asked, still confused beyond reason as to why Fina could be so accepting about being left out of whatever their strange threesome was.

The girl swirled what was left of her tea around in her cup. "Because I love them." She said, as if that explained everything. To her, it probably did. But to Gilder, it just confused him even more.

Then they heard the unmistakable sound of a throaty, gasping whine from Aika, and a low, answering moan from Vyse, which only made Aika's own noise spur upwards until it died out. Gilder stared at the other ship, wishing he'd asked for a strong drink instead of tea, and then looked over to Fina.

He was dismayed to see her face frozen in a smile, but with tears tracking down her cheeks. "You can't tell me you're okay with this! You're crying!" He snapped. Fina was _crying_, and not more than thirty feet away, the two people she claimed to love with her entire heart were screwing each other and leaving her out of it!

Fina laughed, broken from the freeze, and brought a hand up to wipe at her eyes. "I'm perfectly fine with it." She admonished Gilder. "Do you know how long she's waited for this? How long he has? They _needed_ this." She held up a finger to keep him from protesting. "I'm happy for her. I'm happy for him. I'm happy...for _both_ of them."

Gilder shook his head, still not quite getting it. And Fina kept on, staring at him and forcing him to meet her gaze.

"You think that them being together means that somehow, my love for them is worth _less_ than the love they have for each other, or the love that Aika and I have. That he values us any differently, but he _doesn't_. There's enough room in his heart for both of us. And there's enough room in my heart for the both of them. I want them to be _happy_. After everything they've done for me? Everything they're _still_ doing?"

Fina sighed slowly after that, nodding as the noises from the other ship at last fell silent. "Do you know what love is, Gilder?"

"I think I do."

Fina smiled at him again, and Gilder had the sudden impression that she was somehow both disappointed and full of pity for him. She stood up, finished her tea in a long swallow, and patted him on the shoulder. "If you did, you would know why I'm fine with this." Then the Silvite sauntered past him, heading for the wheelhouse and the stairs that would lead to Vyse's cabin belowdecks. She paused at the door.

"Oh, and just so you know? Tomorrow night?" Then her matronly smile faded for sexual predation. "It's _my turn._" And she waved to him one last time, and disappeared.

Gilder sat up on the deck for a long time after that, and resolved to have the stiffest alcohol on hand when that happened.

* * *

_103 Days after the Grand Fortress Escape_

Gilder had gotten an early start to the day, and to his misfortune, so had Aika and Vyse. He had been subjected to the sounds of enthusiastic morning sex while Fina beamed and cheerfully offered him a second helping of Grapor sausage, pretending to be oblivious to the noises that shattered his peaceful morning. He ended up pouring a liberal shot of whiskey into his morning tea to try and ineffectively numb his hearing.

It was mid-morning before Aika and Vyse finally emerged from the confines of the other ship's quarters, completely lost in each other's eyes and hovering close to each other. It was like they were living every poorly written romance story that Clara had ever gushed to Gilder about, back before he realized how fixated on him she really was. They cuddled with their eyes closed. They were almost always looking at each other when they were more than three feet apart. The weary look that Vyse had suffered under since Gilder had met him was gone, blasted away, and a vital young man with a heart full of fire had taken the place of it. And Aika _glowed_. As soon they had come up on deck, the first thing she'd done after giving Vyse a lingering kiss was to race over to Fina, sweep the other girl up in a hug, and brand an even more searing one on her lips next.

They flew the ships side by side through the day, and Gilder was forced to let the less powerful and slower skiff, piloted by Aika, set the pace for their return trip back to Nasrad. Occasionally, Vyse would come over and visit him to relieve his post at the wheel, but it was always with the easy excuse of, _'The girls wanted some time to talk privately.'_ And he smirked the entire damn time.

As they left Daccat's Island behind them, the rest of the small islands in the frontier lands faded with them. They stopped for the evening at the last one before open air spanned out to the south in front of them, with only the barest glimpse of Crescent Island visible through his spyglass. And then, after the cookfire on the island had been put out and the sun dipped beneath the horizon, Gilder had climbed back aboard his captain's yacht and pulled up a high proof bottle of Nasrian Rum and hunkered down in the galley for as long as he could before the heat of the evening and the sting of his buzz forced him abovedecks.

He wasn't surprised to find Aika lounging there, spread out on a deck chair with a tin mug full of something held to her chest while she looked up into the star-filled sky and smiled. She turned slightly as his boots creaked on the decking, and nodded once at him.

"Evening, Gilder." The red-haired woman waved her free hand lazily in his direction. "Pull up a chair."

Gilder sighed and did so, going over to a deckbox and grabbing another foldout before moving beside her. He slumped onto the canvas and took another swig. "What are you drinking?"

"Smallbeer. You?"

Gilder rattled his bottle. "Rum. Want some?"

She snorted. "Pass. I don't want backwash."

"_Mine_, anyways." He muttered, and ignored the glare she sent his way. "So. It's Fina's turn tonight then?" He drawled a touch more callously than he probably needed to.

Aika let out a throaty chuckle. "Yu-p." She droned back, popping the last letter with a loud smack of her lips, then drained the rest of her cup in two long swallows. "I told Vyse he'd better make sure she climaxes at _least_ twice before he does."

"Thoughtful of you." Gilder murmured.

"It's her first time with Vyse." Aika reasoned, running a fingertip along the rim of her now empty cup. "It needs to be special. But Vyse will take care of her. I'm pretty sure he's going to enjoy himself."

"Speaking from experience?" Gilder wagered. Aika chuckled again at that, and held up a fingertip for him to be silent.

About half a minute passed before Fina's resonant voice shattered the quiet night, a long moan that skyrocketed into the higher octaves. _"Moons! Vyse! Oh! Oh! MORE!"_

Gilder winced under the assault, but Aika just fell apart in wild laughter, free and unapologetic.

"Yup." The Blue Rogue grinned, once she composed herself. Gilder stared at her, and Aika gave him a wink. "Fina's a _screamer_."

Gilder took another long swig.

"Aww, what's the matter, Gilder?" Aika teased him, pulling herself up into a slightly more upright position on her chair. She folded her arms over her stomach and flashed her teeth. "As many women as Vyse says you claim to have been with, I would've thought you were used to hearing noises like that."

"Not that loudly." Gilder qualified, and he was stunned to hear a hint of longing in his voice. "And not that...honestly. She really doesn't care who hears her, does she?"

"Not especially." Aika hummed in agreement, unfolding her hands. "But I think it's more likely that she isn't thinking about who can hear her right now. Right now, her whole world is just Vyse."

Gilder shook his head. "Unbelievable."

"Not really." Aika shrugged. "I was the same way last night. Fina mentioned you got a little embarrassed." The warmth on her face faded. "She said that you didn't think we were going to work out."

"I don't." He told her. "On the surface, it seems fine, but...in a few weeks? In a month? Eventually, one of you is going to get jealous of the other two spending more time with each other. And it'll fall apart."

"And what personal experience are you basing this on, exactly?" Aika countered crisply. "Ever been involved with two women at the same time before and it crashed and burned?"

"No."

"Oh, then you must have had a personal account from a member of your crew where something went wrong?"

"Um. No?"

"Oh. So in other words, you just _think_ that what we have isn't going to work, because your own stupid little head can't make sense of it." Aika concluded with a snarl. "The world's bigger than the bits and pieces you've seen, Gilder. I was guilty of it as you are, until Fina showed me that Vyse wasn't _wrong_, and that I could love her just as much as I loved him."

Gilder didn't know what to say to that, so he said nothing and shrugged as noncommittally as he possibly could. But Aika wasn't Fina, and her next dig proved it in spades.

"Clara's a lovely woman." Aika declared, and Gilder creaked his head on his neck to look at the young Blue Rogue. "A saint, really. She saved us, got us to Nasrad, warned us about the dangers, and made sure we knew where to get a room that would be safe." Gilder knew where she was talking about, Fatima had been running the _Calm Sands_ for years, and even kept him and his boys out of trouble on occasion. He nodded vaguely, wondering where Aika was going with the mention of Calamity Clara.

"You don't deserve her." Aika growled out, and _there_ was the fire Gilder had been expecting.

"I haven't been trying to _keep_ her." Gilder pointed out. "I tell every woman I'm with I'm not looking for a commitment. Clara is the only one who refused to take the hint."

"Vyse told me about your hangup." Aika mused. "You're afraid. You _hide_. Sure, it's a good idea in purpose; you don't want to leave anyone a widow. But Clara's not any woman. She's a Blue Rogue, just like we are. She knows the risks." Aika sat up even straighter and poked a finger at him. "So when she's willing to make the attempt, and you're not? It tells me you're a coward."

Gilder glared back at her. "Girl, I like Vyse. I can put up with you. But you don't get to lecture me. Not about this."

They were interrupted again by another loud moan from Fina, and then more strangled words that echoed up out of the ship. _"Ohhh, shit! Harder, Vyse! I'm so full, I'm, I'm, I...I'm so fucking close, I...Ah!…ohh!"_

She was lost in another long groan after that, and Gilder blushed madly. It had the opposite effect on Aika, who smiled warmly. "That's my girl." She said softly. When she looked back to Gilder, the anger was gone. Disappointment hung there. "You've been with Clara, right? Gave her the full treatment?"

Gilder nodded. Aika gestured to the other ship. "Was it like that, when you were with her?"

"Not quite." Gilder admitted, and took another slug of rum to settle his nerves.

"Don't you _want it_ to be like that?" Aika blasted him point blank.

Gilder knew he wanted to say yes. He didn't say it out loud, but somehow, Aika knew it anyways.

"All of us could die tomorrow. You, Clara, me, Fina, Vyse. Seems to me that if you were really free as you say you are, you'd go after that wonderful woman and keep her."

"And be chained down?" Gilder snorted.

Aika huffed and shook her head. "Like talking to a wall." She said mostly to herself. The redhead stood up and stretched her body out, popping her joints in satisfaction. "It's the other way around, Gilder. But I'm done wasting my breath on you. Don't come into Vyse's cabin tonight, I'm shutting the door."

"Going to try and ignore the sounds?"

"Nope." Aika grinned broadly. "Going to give myself a hand and pretend I'm in there with them."

Gilder drained the rest of the rum as Aika skipped away, a scowl marring his face.

* * *

_104 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

On the third day of the voyage back to Nasrad, they sailed past the larger island which Gilder had rescued Vyse from. Gilder was left alone to fly the yacht for about an hour while Vyse went and spoke with the girls, and then he clambered over and spent the rest of the day with Gilder as they took turns sailing the ship, talking, and running errands. That night, they made doubly sure that the ships were anchored together as there were no landmasses to tie off to, and then Vyse, to Gilder's surprise, unfolded two deck chairs and set a small lamp between it before sitting down.

"You're not...not going over there?" Gilder asked, waving a hand in the direction of the skiff which he thought of as the 'Sex Ship' in the back of his mind.

"Do you _want me_ to go over there?" Vyse countered, pulling out a flask from one of his coat pockets. Gilder did a double take and realized that the Blue Rogue must have swiped it from his yacht's galley belowdecks. Vyse took a swig, cringed, and then handed the rest over to him. "Here. Don't think I like this."

Gilder scoffed and took a snort himself, and felt the familiar burn of Valuan rye whiskey slide down his gullet. "Give it a few years, kid. So. Tonight…"

Vyse chuckled. "The girls wanted to spend the night together."

"Ah." Gilder made a soft noise of acknowledgement. "And you're okay with it."

"Why wouldn't I be?" Vyse shrugged, side-eying him. "You sound like you're expecting a lecture."

"Aika and Fina both thought I needed one."

"Well, I'm not them." Vyse chuckled, and rubbed at his chin as the evening began with soft, feminine moans being let out in unison. "Oh, that reminds me. You're nearly out of alcohol. You've been hitting it pretty hard since we left Daccat's tomb."

"I wonder why that could be." Gilder said flatly, and Vyse just smiled and dug around in another pocket. He came up with a pair of small objects linked together on a string about a foot long.

"I thought you might be needing these tonight." Vyse suggested. "Aika uses earplugs when she's working on an active moonstone engine or flywheel parts. She had an extra pair I convinced her to part with."

"That's…" Gilder took the unexpected peace offering, and nodded slowly. "Thanks. It'll be unusual to wake up without a hangover and a desperate need for tea and the hair of the huskra."

"I'll take your word for it." Vyse said, folding his arms over his chest and shutting his eyes. "Gilder?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"...Thank you." And Vyse meant it, Gilder could hear the happy gratitude seeping from every pore of his relaxed posture. "If you hadn't insisted on dragging me on this treasure hunt, I wouldn't have found them. I'd still be moping around, worrying about them."

"So what's next for you, then?" Gilder asked, seeing a way to change the subject.

Vyse shrugged. "We lost Drachma. We lost the _Little Jack_. But we've still got two Moon Crystals and a mission to collect the rest and stop Valua. So, once we're back in Nasrad? We'll go from there. We'll get a ship and keep on going."

"That might be a little bit harder, considering that you were counting on Daccat's treasure to finance a new ship." Gilder pointed out.

"True, but you know the Code. Blue Rogues never give up." Vyse stayed undaunted in the face of uncertain times. "I'd ask if you were willing to let us tag along with your crew for a while, but...that might not be the best idea, considering things."

Gilder had to laugh at that. "Probably. None of us would get any sleep, at the rate you're going. And I don't think you'd last with a no-canoodling policy."

Vyse hummed at that. "I'm not sure I'd be willing to go without now." He thought about it before tacking on an addition. "And the girls sure as hell wouldn't."

Gilder took another swig from his flask and looked up at the stars. With the soft whispers of the air currents passing by, broken up only occasionally by the sounds of the girls' lovemaking inside of their cabin, it was almost peaceful. "You going to be okay, kid?"

"We're going to be fine, Gilder." Vyse said firmly. "We were friends before we were lovers, and…"

"Vyse, I was talking about _you_, specifically." Gilder sighed, interrupting him. "Are _you_ going to be all right?"

Vyse was young, but he was a Blue Rogue captain, anointed by Dyne the Blue Storm, blooded in battle against Valua, and a man in every sense of the word now. For all that he was still swept up in the enthusiasm of youth, that raging fire had been harnessed and tempered. It was what made him close his eyes, and Gilder could see him actually _thinking_ about his response.

Gilder watched as Vyse tilted his head back and looked up at the stars. He could tell from the flicker of the young man's eyes that he heard Aika and Fina take a reprieve and laugh together, and that it made his eyes soften. He watched Vyse smile.

"I was in a bad place for a long time, that's true." He said to Gilder, his voice almost a hushed whisper. "But you got me off of that island. And they pulled me from the abyss. I'm better than fine, Gilder. I'm at peace with myself, at long last. Whatever comes our way, I know I can handle it. I know _we_ can handle it."

"You've got a good crew, Vyse, son of Dyne." Gilder told him.

Vyse hummed again. "They're more than a crew, Gilder."

Gilder considered the Blue Rogue's words, and he finally started to feel something click into place, rough though the edges might be. It escaped him when the door to the skiff's wheelhouse opened up, and Aika emerged, face flushed and nude aside from a sheet tastefully wrapped around her torso that left her feet and ankles bare. With her long red hair tousled and roughed up behind her, she grinned at the men and then crooked her finger at Vyse.

Vyse good-naturedly pulled himself up from the deck chair and gave Gilder a nod. "Duty calls." He excused himself with a wink. "You might want to wear those earplugs now. We'll see you in the morning."

Gilder sighed and did as the young Blue Rogue advised him, although it didn't muffle the happy shriek and laughter Aika let out as Vyse bounded over to the other ship and chased her down belowdecks. It would at least let him sleep once he was in his own cabin, which he headed to at a more sedate pace.

When he set his head down onto his pillow, Gilder finally realized what all three of them had tried to tell him, in their diverse ways. It left him feeling a little humbled, and a little jealous.

He dreamed of Clara that night, and refused to talk about it at breakfast.

* * *

_Nasrad_

_105 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

The Valuan Armada struck Nasrad early in the evening, when the skies were shifting from blues to reds as the sun dipped low enough to bathe the world in the color of blood. Vyse had screamed in anguish and then cursed up a storm when the combined firepower of a dozen ships' worth of cannons turned the Nasultan's palace into rubble. He had tried to warn the Nasultan, Gilder knew. He'd been there with the kid when they were admitted into the palace. When Vyse had told the fat, slovenly ruler surrounded by empty-headed harem girls that the Valuans were coming, that they would pass through the sky rifts of the North Danel Strait.

He had been there when the Nasultan dismissed them out of hand, said that Valua would come through the South Danel Strait as they had 20 years ago, or from the mainland to the north of their border, where they kept vigilant patrols that Gilder knew could stop a military fleet, but not lone pirate ships. He had consoled Vyse when, the warning haven been given and ignored, they set sail to the north to find Daccat's treasure with dreams of riches and with Vyse clinging to the hope that someday, he would find Aika and Fina.

They had found them, and Valua had found Nasrad undefended, its fleet guarding the South Danel Strait and the northern border. And Valua hadn't come to conquer. It had come to ruin. They couldn't fight back. They couldn't stay. To stay was to invite death; once the palace had been destroyed, the Armada rained shells down on the rest of the city with indiscriminate destruction. The four of them fled towards the docks. If they could get to one of their ships...If they could _get away_…

But as they escaped the walls of the burning city and ran down the grand stone steps of Nasrad's harbor, they stumbled at the last. Every ship that had been moored there, merchant and private vessel alike, was shattered, on fire, and either listing or plummeting into the abyss of the Deep Sky far below. The warehouses along the docks blazed, fires out of control. They were trapped, with no way out.

And then things became infinitely worse.

"Fina. So, you are here." The voice was male, a low resonant tenor that cut through the screams of the dying and the wash of flames. They all spun towards it, but Gilder hitched a little when he heard the Silvite woman let out a shuddering gasp. He looked at her, and saw her face drain of its color completely.

Out of the fires, unconcerned and unharmed by them, came a man a half decade older than Vyse with silver hair and a Valuan high officer's uniform. His sky gray eyes, speckled with a hint of blue, looked at them all like Gilder would examine an insect; a thing that offered no threat that he could never be bothered to care about.

"Ramirez." Fina's voice was nothing more than a hushed whisper, but it was heard perfectly by all of them. The girl trembled as she stood there, one hand squeezed into a fist over her heart and the other held low at her side, shaking like a leaf.

The man had about a second's worth of a smirk before he wiped it away. "You remember me. I'm _touched_."

"Ramirez, why are you _doing this?!_" Fina cried, finding her voice at last.

To her question, Ramirez had no answer save to draw his sword, a long and slender broad rapier with silver moonstone that ran the full tang of the blade. "Vyse the Bold. I place you under arrest for piracy, multiple counts of assault on officers of the Valuan Armada, and high crimes against the Empire. You have one chance to surrender."

_ Like hell the kid's going to surrender_, Gilder thought to himself. It was in his Code. Blue Rogues never gave up. And they never backed down from a greater danger. He could see Aika, wearing her thick leather glove on her left hand, reach up to take hold of her favored weapon's hilt. And given the scowl Vyse wore and the direction his hands were headed, he was of the same mind.

But all of their preparations for battle came to a crashing halt when Fina let out an inarticulate scream of panic and dashed in front of her two lovers, arms held wide to bar their path.

"Don't do it, Vyse!" She pleaded, and Gilder saw the _terror_ in her eyes and froze. "You can't defeat him! He'll _kill you!_ Do as he says, please!"

"Fina…?" Vyse said, shocked beyond measure. Gilder looked away from Vyse and to the Valuan officer named Ramirez. He took a longer look at the man, a _long, hard_ look.

He was a swordsman, all right. Gilder used pistols, but he'd trained in swordsmanship briefly as a boy. The Valuan's stance was perfect, not a flaw in his posture, not a lick of his body more exposed than it needed to be. From where he held his sword, he could direct the flow of any duel with ease, and there was a glimmer of power in his eyes, which flashed silver…

Vyse must have finally seen it as well, because he let out an angry grunt and ripped his arms away from the hilts of his swords. Gilder couldn't see the look on his face, only his back, but there was enough tension there for the air pirate to make out that Vyse was fighting every instinct he had to _fight_, to _run_, to do _anything_ but what Fina had begged him with a face full of fear to do.

"We surrender." Vyse growled out.

And Ramirez smirked again and sheathed his blade as an entire troop of Valuan soldiers in their heavy, clanking armor raced up from behind him and moved to encircle the two Blue Rogues, the Silvite, and Gilder.

"Put them aboard the _Monoceros_, in chains and under guard." Ramirez ordered, walking away and not giving any of them a second glance, not even the girl who knew his name and looked at him like she was seeing a ghost. "Set sail for the Grand Fortress after we've finished bombarding Nasrad into a crater."

Gilder was used to being in tight spots. He didn't react as his pistols were confiscated from him, or as his hands were jerked behind his back and shoved into manacles. There would be ways out of this, with enough time. His crew would come through for him like they always did.

He kept his eyes on Vyse and his two women, saw the pained sting of hopelessness rattle between them all. They didn't have anyone but each other, really. And given the way that Vyse and Aika looked at Fina, with an added layer of hurt misunderstanding on top of everything else they were feeling, Gilder wondered if they even had that anymore.

For once in his life, the air pirate didn't want to be _right_. Not about this. They deserved better than his fatalistic cynicism. Daccat had been right, they had found the greatest treasure in the world in each other.

A long-cold ember in his heart blazed to life as he swore a silent vow to help them keep it.


	19. What Happens In The Grand Fortress

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Author's Note/Trigger Warning: **This chapter includes attempted rape, and it does not end well for him. See, this is the one scene in the game that drove me nuts on reflection five years later after I first played it, grew up, and realized that the game devs tried to make prison rape into a joke here. Well, it's not a joke, it's not funny, and I'm not glossing over it. This is Aika, the girl of fire, and nobody is touching her that she doesn't want touching her. If you feel uncomfortable with the idea that a man's tenders could get brutalized or removed for the act? Then I've done my job. Vigoro is a terrible character that might have been okay if they hadn't done this whole 'He visits her jail cell and tries to have his way with her' gag. In the game, it's a setup so you can feel like a big strong man rescuing your woman from the clutches of a blackguard. Screw that. Aika can rescue herself.

* * *

**Nineteen: What Happens In The Grand Fortress…**

_The Grand Fortress_

_Prison Block_

_107 Days After the Grand Fortress Escape_

_15 Minutes to Midnight_

"I hate Valua." Vyse muttered, tense and coiled as a spring as he paced by the small, iron-barred window of the cell that he and Gilder had been shoved into. "It's always so dark and gloomy."

"Says something about the people who live here, doesn't it?" Gilder harrumphed, leaning up against the wall. His casual attitude towards all of this, being arrested and imprisoned, being stripped of their weapons and the _fragging Moon Crystals_ and then separated…

It only set Vyse even further on edge. He let out a low growl and glared at the man. "I don't know where Aika is. I don't know where _Fina_ is."

"Probably in their own cells." Gilder mused. "And you getting worked up isn't going to help matters." Vyse could feel his teeth grinding together. "You're hurting. You're upset. You're worried." Gilder sighed and pushed himself off of the wall, adjusting his pince-nez glasses. "I get it, kid. But you should save your energy. Pacing won't help anything. Having a plan will."

Vyse paused to glare at him. "And what plan do you have that will get us out of this mess before they execute us for piracy and the world succumbs to Valuan oppression?"

Gilder just smiled back at him and pressed a finger to his lips, and Vyse huffed and stopped talking.

The silence allowed him to hear something from outside of his window that was out of place. The flapping of a bird's wings. The Blue Rogue turned to look at the source and almost got brained by a bird with bright green plumage that had no business around a Valuan prison. He swore and ducked out of the way as the familiar parrot dove in between the bars, squawked loudly as it circled inside of their cell, and then landed on Gilder's shoulder.

"Willy. There you are." Gilder chuckled, and reached for the parrot's leg. There was something tied to it, and Gilder made short work of the binding to reveal a curled fold of parchment that had been rolled around the bird's leg. He read it, smiled, and then handed the note over to Vyse. "Like I said. Having a plan will."

Vyse read the note, stunned. "Your crew's going to _attack_ the Grand Fortress?"

"Starting at midnight. The _Claudia_ can make a bit of noise and get their attention. Of course, the goal isn't for them to actually do any damage. They'll lob off a few rounds, put the base on a war footing and then skedaddle when they launch their sentry ships. And while the base is all in a tizzy, that's when we sneak out, grab a ship, and hightail it."

"Not without Aika and Fina." Vyse reminded him firmly, and the older air pirate sighed and nodded, conceding the point. "And there's still the small matter of getting out of this cell."

"Already taken care of." Gilder said, producing the string that had been used to tie the note to Willy's leg. No, not a string. A metal wire. "First rule of being a successful air pirate; learn how to lockpick with metal scraps." He nudged Willy off of his shoulder, and the bird squawked and flew back out the window to make for the waiting pirate ship.

Vyse looked at the note again while Gilder started to work on the lock of their cell. "Hey, there's something written on the back here." He blinked as he turned it over, then chuckled. "Well. Looks like there's more backup than you thought coming."

"Oh?" Gilder said, only giving him half of his attention.

"Yup." Vyse read the note on the back aloud. _"To my darling Gilder. I will fight for your freedom as well! For you, my love! Your soul mate, Clara."_

Gilder's hands twitched and he stopped working for a bit. "Are we _sure_ we have to leave?"

"If you want to stay and die instead of seeing if you're hiding from the best thing that you'll ever have in your life, Gilder, fine. But I've got two women counting on me to pull a miracle out of thin air when I rescue them." Vyse stowed the note and glared at him. "So open that damn lock already."

"Okay, okay. Geez. It was a joke, kid. Mostly." Gilder sighed. It took him less than a minute to trip the tumblers in just the right way, and Gilder smirked as he stood up and swung the door open.

He gestured for Vyse to take the lead. "Shall we?"

"Gladly." Vyse growled, and led the way. There were guards waiting in the next room.

He needed an excuse to do something violent.

* * *

Aika hadn't taken kindly to being separated from Fina. Bad enough that they had been pulled free of Vyse and Gilder after docking at the Grand Fortress, but for the other woman to be dragged away by the guards? She'd almost lost it. Where had they taken her? _Why_ did they separate her? Was it because she was a Silvite, and the Valuans thought that they could get more information out of her? Or was it that new admiral flexing his muscle, the one that Fina had gone pale as death when he approached them in Nasrad?

"Ramirez." She growled out the name, and looked out of the barred window again into the dark skies of Valua. How did Fina know him? It wasn't as if she'd spent a lot of time in the world. She'd been captured by Admiral Alfonso before her mission had even really gotten started, Aika remembered the blonde-haired girl telling her that. Fina hadn't said a word more about Ramirez when they'd been captured, buttoning up tight and trying not to cry.

Aika was trapped in a cell, death was staring her in the face either later today or tomorrow at the earliest, and…

She grabbed the bars and pressed her forehead against them. "Fina." She whispered.

Movement outside of her cell made her grimace, and she looked over her shoulder to see a Valuan guard come over, leading a muscular man with a pompadour and a shirtless blue vest. "Is this where the air pirate girl's being held?" Mr. Pompadour asked in a low rumble.

Something about the man made Fina shiver and stand up a little straighter.

"Yes, Admiral, but…" The guard said hesitantly. Aika flinched. _Another_ admiral?

"Don't worry about it." The taller man said, waving off the guard before grabbing the cell key and unlocking it. He handed the key back without ceremony as the door swung open. "Now run along and make yourself useful somewhere else."

"Sir, we aren't really supposed to leave the prisoners unsupervised…" The guard tried again, looking between the admiral and Aika.

The redhead couldn't help the shiver that ran through her. _No_, some part of her mind tried to yell. _No, don't leave me here with him._

But the admiral merely pushed the guard away with a light touch. "I can make it an order if you want. Relax, trooper. **I'll** supervise the prisoner. _Very_ closely."

"...Very well. Sir." The guard muttered, sparing Aika one last look through the visored helmet that hid his identity before walking off out of the cellblock and closing the door behind him.

Then the admiral stepped into the cell's thin light more fully, cocked one hand on his hip and stroked at his chin with the other.

"I'm not telling you anything." Aika snapped at him. "You already have the Moon Crystals, you've taken my friends away from me, what more do you want?!"

The admiral said nothing, and she shivered again as she felt his eyes dance across the entire length of her body from feet to forehead. "Well, well. What do we have here?" He smirked. "Nice legs and curves in _all_ the right places. Mm. I've seen better, but she's not too bad."

Aika flinched away and put an arm over her chest, in spite of her leather skirt and vest. "Who the hell are you supposed to be, you sick pervert?"

"The name's Vigoro." The pompadoured man said, winking at her. "I'm the toughest man in the Armada. I'm surprised you haven't heard of me. The women I've been with love to brag."

Aika sucked in a shaky breath. "You stay away from me." How many times had Dyne warned her to never be captured? How many times had Vyse given her a small dagger to slip into her boot before they went out on a mission with serious eyes? He'd warned her to 'Never let the Valuans take you alive.' And now it was clear why.

But Vyse had surrendered, and every weapon, even the knife in her boot had been taken from her. And she was trapped in a prison cell with a man easily twice her size.

"Aw, come on, Red." Vigoro smirked, and he blew a kiss at her. "You know I'm the man of your dreams." And had his hand glowed when he'd done that?

And...She stumbled back against the wall, and her head was swimming. When had…

"We were meant to be together." Vigoro crooned, strolling towards her, and Aika found herself breathing rapidly, shallowly, and the room was spinning. His voice echoed in her ears. _What? What was…_

He stopped in front of her, placing one hand against the wall beside her head. She tried to shake off whatever was affecting her, didn't dare look at his face. Her eyes went to his trousers, and the unusual, abnormally sized lock on the front of them.

"I'm sure you'll grow to like me." He said, his warm breath drifting by her ear and tickling the hair there. A soft noise followed it, and…

_Moons, had she just moaned? _Why was it so hard to...to think…

"Whu...whu...what's...a lock?" She stuttered out as her blurry eyes focused on the unusual accessory on the front of his pants.

"Insurance." Vigoro told her reassuringly, and she shivered as his other hand came up to stroke gently along the side of her face. "I'm a very large man. In every respect. And I don't like to hurt women. So, I keep a lock on it. But they always take the key I offer them, and they always unlock it. Because they want what I can give them." He blew against her ear again, and this time she heard herself moan as the room became terribly warm, and she felt her knees start to give out as a tightening ache she knew well built up between her legs, and in her breasts. "Just like you will, Red. I can feel it."

"Nn...nuh...Nuh, I won't." She tried to protest.

Vigoro laughed softly, and his hand grabbed her chin, tilted her face up to look at him. "Yes, you will. You're already succumbing to my power, Red. Feeling warm? Feeling weak? Having trouble focusing? It's my power, baby. I make it _good_ for you. I make you want it, and I make it so no other man will _ever_ be as good."

Every word from his mouth made her breathing even more ragged, and she could feel moisture collecting in her mouth, and beneath as well. She started to crumple, but…

But there were hands grabbing her, picking her up, pushing her back against the wall. The stone dug at the skin of her arms, but she didn't have time to think on it before a warm, hot mouth engulfed her own.

Before a warm, wet tongue slipped past her lips and poked and prodded at her own. Before she moaned against…

Against who?

Who was making her feel like this?

"Oh, damn. You're so hot." A low, masculine voice rumbled against her. A hard weight pressed into her, keeping her pushed up against the wall, and then there were hands stroking all over her body. Over her arms. Up into the hair at the base of her scalp. Down the sides of her body, stroking along her legs, pulling them up…

"Lean forward for me, baby." The voice urged her on, pulling on her shoulder even as it asked. She was so warm, so dizzy, and it was so hard to focus...And it felt so _good_. She slumped forward, not sure if she'd done it herself or if...if whoever was doing this had just pulled her forward.

Then she was being pulled away from the cold stone of the wall, picked up like she weighed nothing. The impact of being thrown onto the room's bare cot, and…

_Hands, hands tracing her chest, and she groaned…_

Cool air passed over her body, and she arched up slightly as the unexpected breeze passed over her breasts, her navel.

"Moons, you're gonna be so _good_, Red." She felt lips press down on her throat, going lower as she threw her head back. The lips went lower, closed around one of her buds, while a hand took the other, and…

**No.**

_No? But…_

**NO.**

_But it felt so good, and…_

**NO!**

Why...Why was…

It was the smell that cleared the haze of her addled mind first. It was too deep. Too sharp. Too musky. It wasn't Vyse's smell. It wasn't the soft, flowery notes of Fina's smell either, and she knew that one so intimately…

"Open up for me, baby…" The voice rumbled against her chest before the lips got to work again, and she let out a soft gasp as fingers worked underneath her skirt.

_But it was wrong._

_ Those weren't Fina's lips._

_ Those...those weren't Vyse's fingers._

_**That wasn't Vyse's voice.**_

"Oh, you're ready. You're so wet and ready for me, baby." That voice, that _wrong voice_ cracked the glass that had her mind trapped in the smoky haze of spirit-infused pheromones.

She felt something cold and metallic being pressed into her hand. A key.

"What do you say, baby?" The voice asked her with a chuckle. "Ready to play with Vigoro?"

_**Vigoro.**_

She couldn't move yet, and the haze was still there, but she knew now. She knew why this felt so wrong. Why her mind was screaming at her.

He guided her hand and the key down to his waist. To the lock. She heard the mechanism click loudly, heard him sigh as he pushed his trousers away.

_**That. Was. Not. VYSE!**_

The haze cleared as she dropped the key, which clattered to the floor. She took in a sharp breath, and the dizziness of the room faded. The clarity in her eyes returned as she stared at what was **not** Vyse, right in front of her.

"Go ahead and touch it." Vigoro urged her with a grin.

Fire burned in Aika's eyes, and unseen by the Valuan admiral, it sprang to life in her hand. He wanted her to touch it? Fine.

So she did.

* * *

Vyse and Gilder had fought through the guards in their own cellblock, stolen the weapons from them after, and gone running with a stolen lift key. One of the guards had been thoughtful enough of the situation after being overpowered by _two unarmed air pirates_ to give them the information they needed, which was what floor they had to access to find where Aika was being held. They heard the screaming out of her cellblock right as they stepped off of the elevator, high-pitched screaming, in the upper reaches of the human vocal range.

Vyse bellowed her name and charged on, gutting the only guard on the cellblock who had been startled to see them coming. He threw the dying man aside and barreled for the door, using the second-rate Valuan sword and overcharging the moonstone core within the blade to make it ignite in blue fire. It ate away at the sword and corroded it heavily, a side effect of shoddy mass production, but it lasted long enough to turn the last barrier between Vyse and his waiting shipmate and lover into massive chunks of rubble.

He pulled up short when they came through, stunned at what they saw. It wasn't what he expected at all. He had thought to find Aika being tortured for information, or being attacked, but…

But Aika stood tall, her face a rictus of fury, her eyes blazing as red as the fire in her hand cupped around a Valuan's…

Behind him, Vyse heard Gilder bend over and vomit up loudly and continuously. The sight made him sick as well, because the squeals of pain were coming from the naked man who Aika had a tight grip on. She was stripped down to her waist, and Vyse checked to make sure Gilder wasn't watching before he raced over.

"You don't get to touch me!" Aika howled, and the blaze in her fist around the Valuan's berries increased. "You'll **never touch any woman again!"** The pain must have finally overwhelmed him as he succumbed and went silent, and Aika stepped back as he collapsed to the floor, heaving for air from a face as red as her hair was.

She breathed, and Vyse took a step towards her. Aika screamed again and kicked at Vigoro, crushing her boot into his chest to the sound of the sickening crack of ribs. She kept kicking him, kept screaming, her eyes feral and unchanging.

Vyse charged at her, forced her back away from the broken and shattered man, wrapped her arms around her. Covered her.

She kept screaming, thrashed in his arms, tried to kick at Vyse as well. He endured it, holding her tight, taking her wild blows.

"It's okay. It's okay." Vyse kept saying. "It's over, Aika. It's over. He can't hurt you anymore."

He wasn't sure what finally got through to her. His voice? His smell? The feel of his arms around her? It took around half a minute, but she finally stopped thrashing, started breathing again, gasping for air.

She came back to herself. Vyse finally loosened his grip, let her pull back. Aika's wild brown eyes stared into Vyse's.

"Vyse?"

He smiled at her. "Hey, Aika."

The shock wore off. Her panic set in, and her head swiveled around. "He...He didn't…"

"It's okay." Vyse said, raising his hands to cup her face. He held her face still. "Aika, it's okay. You're not hurt."

"He…" Aika stammered, tears finally coming to her eyes. She tried to push him away. "Don't touch me!" But Vyse just let go of her face and grabbed her hands. "Vyse, I'm not...He…"

"He didn't." Vyse cut her off, refusing to look away. He didn't dare. Not now, not here, not when… "Aika, he _didn't_. And even if he had? After I'd _killed him _for it? It wouldn't change how I feel about you. Not ever."

Her face crumpled in at that. "I…"

"You are not hurt. You are _not_ damaged goods." He insisted, cutting her off again and kissing her forehead. "You are not broken, and you are not weak, and it is not. Your. Fault. I love you. Fina loves you. Nothing anyone could do to you, or to me, or to her, will ever change that. Do you understand me?"

He hoped she did. He hoped that he'd said enough to get the point across. He would _not_ have her feeling broken, or soiled, or used. She had fought her rapist off, fought him off and cooked his balls to a cinder.

"I didn't let him." She sobbed, and finally gave in, burying her face into his chest. "I swear, I didn't let him…"

"I know." He kissed the top of her head and wrapped his arms around her again. "I know. You're a Blue Rogue. You'd never let anyone touch you if you didn't want them to. I'm so proud of you."

Aika wasn't one for wild dramatic wailing, but her shoulders shook fiercely, and if there was the odd sob as she kept her face buried into his chest, Vyse never said anything about it.

Gilder let out a soft groan as he picked himself up, and Vyse shot him a warning look. The older air pirate waved off his concern and kept his eyes averted, kneeling down beside the disabled rapist.

"Shit. This is Vigoro." Gilder said. "Head of the Third Fleet. A real piece of work." Gilder felt around the man and exhaled. "He's alive, for now. But I don't think he'll ever be able to father children again, even if they get to him in time to work some healing magic."

"Good." Aika mumbled loudly.

"Gilder, you mind…" Vyse asked, waving a hand at him.

"Yeah, yeah." Gilder got up, wiped away some last traces of vomit from his chin, and turned around to go rifling through the admiral's clothes for valuables. Vyse brought one of his hands to wipe the tears away from Aika's face.

"You okay?"

"No." Aika admitted with a cracked little laugh. "Do I have to be?"

"After this?" Vyse muttered, grabbing her hand. "No. No, you be as angry or as hurt as you want to be. Just as long as you remember I'm not going anywhere, that you're not alone. I'm right here with you." He leaned in to kiss her, and Aika panicked and pulled away.

"I...Sorry, Vyse, I…" Her eyes fell down. "I probably taste like _him_."

He refused to let her do this to herself. Vyse stroked a finger along the side of her chin to coax her to look up, then gave her a kiss on the mouth. Just a quick peck. Just long enough to test her fear.

"Hm." He licked his lips. "Nope. Just you. And you're as sweet as ever."

Her smile that time was much more genuine.

"If you kids are done, we might want to think about getting out of here soon." Gilder said loudly. Vyse turned to look at him and found the other pirate very intentionally looking out and away from them. He held up something out away from him. "I found something in Admiral McRapey's pants pocket; looks like he had the keycard that'll allow us to access the cannonworks. From there, we'd be able to make out way out of the Grand Fortress."

"Okay." Vyse said. "But we need to find Fina first. We're not leaving without her."

Gilder chuckled. "I could have guessed you'd say that, kid. If she's not here in the cellblocks, though…"

"They must have taken her elsewhere on the base." Aika cut in, separating from Vyse and reaching for her undergarments and her shirt and leather vest. "And I'll bet you anything that that miserable jackass _Ramirez_ is keeping her close by." She quickly slipped her clothes back on, sighed, and cleared her throat. "I'm decent, Gilder. Thank you."

"No problem." The air pirate still turned his head slowly, visibly relaxing once he confirmed that her girls weren't on display. "I tried to memorize the layout of the Grand Fortress on our way in. There was a map we passed by as they were escorting us away from the docks. If that Admiral Ramirez decided to take Fina with him, we'll need to cut across the cannonworks and take an exterior elevator to the upper level."

They walked out, and Aika scooped up a dead guard's stun baton as they passed the cooling body. The base shuddered a bit from impacts and explosions, and Aika glanced to the outer walls as dust fell down from the ceiling.

"What's that?"

"Our distraction. It must be midnight." Vyse said, giving her a side hug before running ahead to the elevators. He winced as the one on the right glowed from being in use. "Gilder, we're using the left elevator! Let's move!"

* * *

A tremendous explosion tore through one of the massive cannons built into the outer wall of the Grand Fortress as the two Blue Rogues and one friendly air pirate rode up an external elevator. It made the entire base shudder, and Vyse clutched at the guardrail as Aika grabbed hold of him and squeezed.

"The hell was _that?_" Vyse shouted, watching smoke and fire billow out from...A very familiar cannon. "Wasn't that the cannon we ran through to escape the cannonworks?!" And he looked back to Gilder, who seemed entirely too smug and self-satisfied. "You booby trapped it, didn't you."

"Keeps them occupied putting out fires they weren't expecting, now doesn't it?" Gilder chuckled. He clapped a hand on Vyse's shoulder and looked up along the side of the wall. "Besides, we're going to need all the distractions we can manage for this next leg. Trying to infiltrate the living quarters of the admiralty? I can think of cleaner suicides."

Beside them, the massive wall full of cannons suddenly groaned and began to bulge out along the side, taking the cannons and the damaged section of wall with it.

Gilder hummed aloud. "I guess that blast has them more worried than I thought. They're changing the wall to its defensive posture. That'll take them a few minutes to make the shift. Makes it our best chance to get out of here."

"We're not _leaving_ without Fina." Aika snapped at him.

"I know, I know." Gilder chuckled. "I get it. The three of you love each other. If our trip back to Nasrad didn't make that clear, I think this whole _debacle_ has." He glanced over to Aika. "How _did_ you snap out of it, anyways? Every story I've ever heard about that bastard said that no woman could resist his...his charms."

"He's not Vyse." Aika told Gilder harshly, wrapping her arms around Vyse from behind him and leaning her chin over his shoulder. "And he _definitely_ wasn't Fina. I…" She shut her eyes. "I don't know how to describe it. It just felt _wrong_. And once I figured that out, I could fight it. And then I was myself again."

Vyse chewed the inside of his cheek for a bit at her confession, puzzling it over. "If he was using magic on you...maybe it wasn't strong enough to break through love?"

Gilder laughed aloud at that. "And here I was thinking Blue Rogues didn't go in for fairy stories. The power of true love breaking enchantments?"

Aika giggled a bit and squeezed Vyse even harder. "I like it."

"I thought you didn't like girly things, Aika."

"Idiot." She mumbled without any heat. "I am a girl."

Vyse grabbed her hand, brought it up to his lips, and kissed it softly. "No. You're a woman."

Aika blushed a bit. "Idiot."

"Your idiot." Vyse turned his head to the side to grin at her.

"_Our_ idiot." She countered, and pecked a kiss on the corner of his mouth. Gilder just sighed, stepping off of the lift when it finally came to a stop.

"Come on, lovebirds." He grumbled, drawing a pair of borrowed moonstone pistols he'd swiped from an armory they'd passed by through the cannonworks. "We've still got the third tire on your tricycle to rescue yet."

* * *

It was a close thing, avoiding the searchlights around the exterior of the Grand Fortress as they made their way up the last few floors to the habitation level of the admiralty. After they did so though, they found themselves trying not to breathe in a side corridor while _Ramirez himself_ gave a mission briefing to an entire squad of Valuan troopers before they took off for the main elevator. The young admiral was even thoughtful enough to order two troopers to remain behind and 'guard the Silvite' before he disappeared with the rest.

Vyse and Aika had given each other a look of pure ferocity after that, and Gilder must have sensed how angry they were, because he just took a step back and let them lead. The fight after they stormed out into the hallway was quick, brutal, and efficient, giving neither guard the chance to raise the alarm. And then they busted into the wardroom that the guards had been in front of…

Where an unharmed Fina whirled around in surprise from where she'd been standing by the window. She turned, and smiled at them.

"Fina!" Aika yelled, and raced over to grab the other girl and hug her tight. Vyse was hot on her heels, and Gilder stayed by the door, watching for trouble. "You're okay!" The redhead said in relief. "Thank the Moons, you're okay!"

"I'm so glad you're here." The Silvite said, holding her back.

"Did you think we wouldn't come for you?" Vyse asked her.

"No, never." Fina quickly dismissed the idea. "I knew you would come for me. The last time, I didn't think anyone would. But this time?" She smiled and kissed them both on the cheek. "I knew you would be here."

"Good, great, we're all together." Gilder said, looking out the doors again. "Might I suggest we _get going_ while we still have a chance to…"

And then the alarms started going off.

The reunion cut short, Vyse looked to Aika and Fina and was unsurprised to see both of them just looking back with hard faces and determined nods.

"Time to move!" Gilder shouted, and they all turned and followed him, running flat out.

* * *

The troops in the Grand Fortress might have been running scattered before with ships on the outside of the base lobbing shells at the wall and one of the cannons 'malfunctioning' and blowing itself apart. But now the wail of the alarms clearly delineated an internal danger rather than an external one, and the hounds were closing in. They'd made their way towards the docks, hoping to find a ship of some kind when there came a loud _clang_ that resounded through the entire base, followed by a sobering announcement.

_"Grand Fortress Gate is now closed and locked in defensive position! All soldiers, be on the lookout for intruders! Consider them armed and extremely dangerous!"_

"Shit." Gilder hissed, pulling up to a stop in the middle of a wide-open space with doors and elevators all around them, and a cargo lift ahead of them which was inactive. Vyse swiveled left and right, on the lookout for attackers or the Valuan's mechanical sentries to come racing in to close the noose.

"Which way do we go, Gilder?" He snapped, brandishing another poor-quality Valuan blade.

"I don't remember!" Gilder yelled back, putting the butt of one pistol up to the side of his head and grimacing. "Damnit, I only saw that base map for all of five seconds. We have to pick a door and hope for the best!"

"But what if it's the wrong door?" Aika demanded. "We choose wrong, the entire base pours out and we die here!"

Nobody got the chance to answer her question, because that was when the large service lift, large enough for a tank, stirred to life with its control panel glowing brightly.

"Quick! Get on the lift!" A voice shouted from the floor above them, just high enough to cut through the wailing of the alarms. They all jerked their heads towards it, and Vyse weighed the odds.

"What the hell, it's as good an option as anything else right now. Everybody get on!" He ordered, and they moved. Gilder was the last to get on, and he had to jump at the last second to clear the edge, as the lift started up in a hurry right before.

The wailing of the alarms and the bright flood lights of the floor beneath them faded away as the service elevator came up to the floor above them. Only dim side lights lit up an empty corridor with no troopers or soldiers waiting for them. Nobody was waiting for them, except for one young man in his mid-twenties, sharply dressed in a uniform wholly unlike any other admiral or soldier they'd ever come across. Underneath a beret lay a well-trimmed head of blonde hair, and a stoic face.

There was a sword strapped to his waist; a rapier, if the pommel and handguard were any indication. A nobleman's weapon.

"So. You are Vyse the Blue Rogue? Son of Dyne the Blue Storm? Terror of the Valuan Armada?" The man asked calmly.

Vyse exhaled and stood a little taller, holding his own borrowed sword low and away. "They give me a lot of names."

That got a small smile from the other fellow, who seemed unconcerned as Aika, Fina, and Gilder stood to reinforce their friend. "Yes, they do. My name is Enrique."

Gilder let out a strangled noise and stumbled a bit. "Vyse? This...this is the _Prince_ of the Valuan Empire."

"Shit." Vyse groaned, while Aika started and gasped. "Okay, did we just walk into a trap?"

"No, you didn't." Enrique quickly dissuaded their first thought. "And yes, I am the prince. I determined after you escaped from your cells, that you might make your way to the docks to try and steal a ship and get away from the Grand Fortress." He hesitated. "I...I heard about the condition of Admiral Vigoro while I was making preparations. I'd made my way to your cell first, Mr. Vyse, and found you missing. I'm not fully versed in the entire command structure of the Admiralty, but I have heard disturbing rumors in the past." He made a face as he went on. "Did he behave in an ungentlemanly manner?"

"Yeah." Aika growled, not over it. Vyse looked back at her and gave her an understanding nod. She wouldn't be over it for a while yet. "You could say that."

Enrique exhaled. "Then I shall say nothing of his injuries. They were well deserved. There was a time that such actions would have seen a man gelded for the crime. An Admiral of the Valuan Armada should know better."

"Are you trying to say that all Valuans aren't power-hungry jerks hellbent on domination?" Aika demanded.

"Yes." Enrique replied crisply, with a tongue clearly versed in debate and argument. "Are all air pirates cold-blooded killers who strip captured vessels to the keel and throw prisoners overboard into the abyss?"

"Not Blue Rogues." Vyse growled.

Enrique smiled again. "And nor me either, Vyse. Let us each measure the other by the weight of our actions taken directly, instead of the brush of generalizations."

"...Fair enough." Vyse conceded, lowering his sword a bit more. He looked around the dark space. "So why'd you bring us here?"

"Because you intend to escape Valua and continue your mission to blunt the expansionist dreams of the Empire." Enrique explained. "And _**I**_ intend on making sure you do." He waved a hand at them and turned about on his heel. "Please. Come this way." He walked on without checking to see if they were following him.

"Okay, explain this to me. Why is the Prince of Valua helping us get out of here?" Aika hissed to Vyse, not nearly as quietly as she might have hoped.

Vyse just shook his head. "I don't know. But right now? I say we follow him and find out. It's better than anything we had planned at this point."

"Hey, I had a plan!" Gilder protested, as they started off after Enrique.

"You had _half_ a plan." Fina corrected him. "Perhaps Prince Enrique has the other half. I've seen him before. He always protested the heavy-handedness of the Armada. It did not win him any favors from the Admiralty." She paused, her footsteps clacking against the metal plating of the floor as they went on. "Or his mother."

Hoping for the best and prepared for the worst, the four former prisoners of Valua walked into the darkness after the Empire's sole Prince and heir. They were wide awake in the dead of night.

All of them prayed silently to the Moons that they would endure to see a morning under unclouded skies.


	20. Let Them Tremble When They Hear Our Name

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Twenty: Let Them Tremble When They Hear Our Names**

_The Grand Fortress_

_Dockyards_

_108 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_The Witching Hour_

Fina didn't know where Prince Enrique was taking them. This part of the base was one she'd never gotten the chance to see, on this trip or the last. Through a side door from the main hallway, the beret-wearing royal had led them down a long corridor which flexed slightly underfoot as they passed through it. On the other side, there was another hallway of metal, but much more confined than the rest of the base had been. She had her suspicions as Enrique guided them along under the glow of faint emergency lighting, but it wasn't until they went up several flights of metal stairs and through an ornate doorway lined with electrum plating that it became clear.

He had brought them aboard an empty ship. And now they all stood on a bridge more impressive, more ornate, more _dangerous_ than any other ship she had been on during her time on Arcadia. Brilliantly polished yellow brass ran around the whole of the room in wide stripes, around the reinforced moonstone glass panel windows and the consoles.

"You've probably already figured out that we're on the bridge of a ship." Enrique said, moving to stand beside the pilot's telemotor. He set down a duffel bag that he'd grabbed after rescuing them, sighing as the weight of it settled onto the large cartographer's table placed in the center of the bridge. Fina's eyes shot over to Vyse, who was still gaping at the sight of their surroundings. Gilder was almost as gobsmacked. Aika…

Fina found herself glancing to her lover and bedmate the most. Aika was almost never reserved out in the open, around others. Her exuberance was her defense and the face she showed to the world. But she was so quiet now, and her eyes…

Some hurt Fina didn't know about was in her eyes. Aika smiled at her, spoke to her openly, and there was still love there, still boundless trust. But something had happened, likely with Admiral Vigoro if that veiled conversation earlier was accurate, and it ate at Aika in the quiet.

"Say hello to the _Delphinus_, the newest member of the Armada." Enrique went on, oblivious to the ruminations of the Silvite's concerns. "Construction was started approximately one year ago; it was meant to be my personal flagship. It's heavily armored, can match the top speed of all of our cruisers with its four rear-mounted impellers, is twice as long as any existing ship of the line at 1200 feet, and has four gravity-mounted rotating turrets, capable of firing shells up to three feet in diameter. In addition, it possesses six torpedo launchers along the forward deck and a brand new weapons system, a very powerful main cannon De Loco bragged about. A Moonstone Cannon?"

At the name, Fina jerked forward and made a startled noise. "A Moonstone Cannon? Like the one he used in Ixa'taka?"

Enrique blinked in surprise. "I believe so? The one installed on the _Delphinus_ is a refined version of the prototype the _Chameleon_ was equipped with. He bragged once that this one was twice as powerful."

"This ship is incredible." Vyse breathed.

Enrique smiled again, sadly this time. "It's just the prototype. The Admiralty is planning on creating an entire fleet of _Delphinus_-class ships. With them, Valua would be able to take over the world with ease."

Gilder strolled by the ship's engine order telegraph, whistling lowly as he stroked at his chin. "With Nasrad out of the picture...there'll be nothing standing in their way." He turned to look at Enrique and smirked. "But this is all beside the point, your royalness. You help us break out, you take us aboard your newest ship and you brag about what it can do...What's your plan here?"

"I've been wondering about that myself, actually." Aika added softly, and Fina tried to get a bead on her emotional state right after that.

Enrique sighed and stared down at the deck plating for a while after that.

"My plan is for you to take this ship and _stop them._" The Prince growled out, finally looking up and meeting their surprised faces. "And I want you to take me with you."

Fina and Aika gasped. Vyse just blinked before offering a flat, "What?"

"Valua has been taking over other countries by force, destroying their lands, and murdering the innocent." Enrique went on. He was so serious, so earnest, that Fina wondered how he could be related to the Empress Teodora, a woman of blind ambition and greed. "I am the Prince of the Empire. Their blood is on my hands. I've done all I can to convince my mother and Galcian that Valua's actions are wrong, but they refuse to change their ways." His gloved hands clenched into tight fists, and his mouth warped into something akin to a snarl. "Everything I have tried has failed. I am _powerless_ to stop them. But you weren't powerless, Vyse. You and your friends have stood against the Empire and triumphed twice over with limited means, a brave heart, and endless daring. My only chance at redemption is to aid you." He then went a step farther, dipping into a formal bow. "If I must...I will surrender myself to you as your prisoner." And then he fell silent, waiting for the decision.

Fina and Aika looked at each other for about half a second before they both turned to Vyse, deferring to their captain's command.

Vyse considered it for only two seconds before he walked forward and stood in front of Prince Enrique, using a hand to push the older man up to a full stand. "I'm not taking prisoners, Enrique. If you want to come with us...you're going to have to do it as a Blue Rogue." And then he smiled. "Besides, you're giving us a ship. At this point, it's almost tradition." He held out his hand, and Enrique broke out into a grin, shaking it eagerly.

"I will gladly do my part as a member of your crew."

"Don't believe we've been properly introduced. I'm Vyse, a captain in the Blue Rogues." Vyse chuckled.

"Enrique. Self-exiled Prince of Valua." Enrique countered. "I've heard interesting things about you, captain."

"Good things?"

"Galcian wants your head on a pike." The Prince replied. "It doesn't get much better than that, I think."

"I didn't think I'd ever be serving on the same ship as a Valuan. Much less a prince." Aika mused, smiling at Fina. Then her face fell. "But the Moon Crystals...Valua still has them"

"_Technically_, Valua does." Enrique said, laughing softly as he went over to his duffel on the table. He unzipped it and dug around for a bit before coming up with the Green and Red Moon Crystals in his hands. "The moment my last plea fell on deaf ears, I grabbed them. My mother insisted on keeping them in the palace; it made retrieving them easy enough. I planned on destroying them, but…" He shrugged. "Perhaps you will find a better use for them than Galcian and my mother intended."

Vyse took the Moon Crystals with hushed reverence, managing to nod his head in thanks. Gilder was more verbose.

"You're a magnificent bastard, you know that? Keep this up, you'll be a regular air pirate in no time, prince."

Vyse gave the Moon Crystals over to Fina, then looked back to the prince. "Okay. We've got the Moon Crystals back, we've got a ship...we've just got to get out of here now. Do you know the best way to manage it?"

"I can get us out of the docks, but once we're in the main shipping corridor the Grand Fortress will figure out what we're up to." Enrique said. "The ship also isn't completed yet; the concussive armor plating isn't installed, the engines haven't been fully tuned, and our munition stores are limited to what they had stocked for the shakedown cruise."

"We've done more with less." Vyse resolved confidently, and Fina shivered from the commanding voice he used. "Everybody, find a station. Gilder? I want you to figure out how to work the guns. We're going to need them."

Fina watched as Gilder chuckled and went to take his station. Vyse went for the helm while Enrique went over to communications. Aika, after a pause, came back to herself. "I'd better go down and check on the engines." She said with a weak laugh. "It'd be bad if we lost power before we even got away." She walked fast after that, heading for the door. Vyse watched her go with open concern on his face, and that sealed it for Fina.

She walked after the woman who held half of her heart, because something was wrong.

The Silvite needed answers.

* * *

Down in the engine room, Aika was a whirlwind of motion. It was all Fina could do to keep pace with her.

"The size of these driveshafts must be _enormous_." The redhead said to herself, eyes flitting from the two story high reciprocating engines. Gantry walkways and metal stairs gave the space the feel of a cavernous interior, and the glow of the floodlights made it seem as though they were in a warehouse, if not for the sloped sides and carefully mounted support struts keeping everything together. She and Fina stood alongside the higher mounted turbine on the starboard side as Aika checked the readings and consulted the technical manuals helpfully left hanging from the engine's monitor.

"Aika."

"Yeah, one second Fina. Kind of busy here." Her lover didn't even _look_ at her now. Fina knew her moods well, and there were times where Aika lost herself in the work. She was trying to make it seem that way again, but there was a frenzy in her movements that hadn't been there before. Her hands had a tremor that excitement had never caused in them before. Something was wrong. Something was _wrong_, and Aika wouldn't tell her what.

"Are you mad at me?" Fina blurted out the first thing, knowing that it was likely wrong. She asked it anyways, because Ramirez stumbling back into her life, into _their_ lives, had been problematic. Vyse had been so hurt when Fina had begged him to surrender. He'd done it, but he'd been hurt by it. "About Ramirez, I...I'm going to tell you both, I _swear_. My people thought he was lost, but when I saw him with the Valuans…"

"Later." Aika cut her off, setting the book down and punching in a few buttons, grunting as she looked to the monitor before walking briskly in the opposite direction to the next reciprocating engine.. "I'm upset, but I'm not mad at you. Okay? More worried. There are things we need to know that we don't. I just thought that after...I thought you were done keeping secrets from us."

"I am." Fina promised with pain in her voice as she trailed after her. "I _swear_, Aika, I'm going to tell you everything. No more secrets."

Aika finally came to a stop once she reached the last engine and quickly ran it through the same startup sequence. "Good." Fina reached a hand out and touched her shoulder, and Aika made a strangled noise of surprise and flinched away from her, whipping her head around with wide, panicked eyes.

Fina's heart sunk. She'd _never_ done that before, not even back when they had been fighting. Aika must have realized her mistake, because even though her face was white as a sheet, she managed an uneasy laugh. "Sorry, I...We're in a Valuan ship. I guess I'm still a little jumpy."

"You're never this jumpy." Fina countered, trying to quell the pit in her stomach. "You are a warrior, forged in the fires of blood and battle. You taught _me_ how to fight, and you are always in control. Or you were. What happened, Aika? I'm scared."

"We got arrested, thrown in prison." Aika deflected, going back to her readouts. "We lost _everything_. We're not free yet, either."

"Something happened to _you_, Aika." Fina went on, careful not to touch her again. She sidled around to stand beside her lover, clasped her hands together low by her waist, and kept staring at Aika until the redhead finally broke and looked at her. Aika tried to school her features, managed it until Fina asked her second question. "What did Vigoro do to you that was bad enough that Enrique would have _castrated him_?" Aika's face crumbled, and Fina sucked in a sharp breath of air. "Oh. _Oh_. Did he…"

"He didn't." Aika trembled. "He almost did. I stopped him."

Fina moved slowly, making sure Aika knew that it was her, knew what she was doing. She stepped up to her friend, her battle sister, her lover, pulled her into a tight hug. "It will be okay."

"No it won't." Aika whispered, shaking like a leaf. "I can't...You touched my shoulder, and I thought it was _him_. I know you love me. I know Vyse does, he promised. He kissed me after, promised me that I wasn't _tainted_. But…"

"Knowing you're fine, and _feeling_ like you're fine are two different things." Fina concluded, gently stroking the other woman's back. "Time, Aika. You need time to recover. But you will recover. Because you're my Aika, and my Aika is so strong." Aika didn't move, and Fina squeezed her again. "Breathe." Aika breathed. "Now say it. Say that you're going to be all right."

"But I…"

"Say it. Believing it comes later."

Aika closed her eyes. "...I'll be all right."

Fina made a soft humming noise. "Good." She smiled, gave Aika a peck on her cheek, and pulled away. "Now. Finish checking these engines, so we can get back up to the bridge and launch."

"Yes, ma'am." Aika smiled weakly, and got back to work. Fina kept smiling until she had slipped back into her usual focus.

Only when she was sure Aika wasn't watching her did Fina turn away and look towards the bow, hidden beyond the end of the engine compartment. She imagined the Moonstone Cannon, a weapon of pure destruction that Ramirez must have told Galcian and De Loco about. Silvite technology, reconstructed from haphazard musings with no real technical data.

Her face darkened into a rictus of pure rage.

They had hurt Aika.

_Valua_ had _hurt Aika._

Fina would make them **pay** for every tear her friend shed.

* * *

As Prince Enrique explained, Admiral De Loco was a mad genius who put all his faith in machines. There were times that it became problematic, but automation had been marvelous in other regards.

They didn't need a single human soul to be present at the _Delphinus_'s berth to assist with the launch. Once everyone was back on the bridge, all Enrique had to do was transmit a code from the ship's communications console along the umbilical that sent power from the Grand Fortress to the _Delphinus_, and the process of uncoupling, unmooring, and pulling back the locks and gantry cranes moved on its own.

"Main umbilical...detached." Aika reported from the console that monitored the ship's power status and engines. "The _Delphinus_ is now on internal power, moonstone reactors are at sub-critical. Engines online and idling. Main impellers on standby, maneuvering spinners are active and linked to helm control."

"Good." Vyse kept a hand on the wheel and looked around the bridge. "Gilder. How are weapons looking?"

The older air pirate laughed, shaking his head incredulously. "We've got no torpedoes on board, and a single salvo of shells loaded into the four turrets. Gives us eight shots. The turrets can be controlled manually by a crew on-site, but there was an option for 'bridge control', so I switched it over. We just won't have anybody to reload them after we fire. As for that Moonstone Cannon? Couldn't make heads or tails of it. It doesn't fire projectiles, I know that much."

Fina had only needed two minutes with a helpfully provided instruction manual to realize just how backwards De Loco's efforts were. "It fires electromagnetically accelerated exotic particles in a diffusion wave that dissipates exponentially beyond a focused firing range of ten kilometers. In truth, it's more of a wave motion effect than a 'cannon', but…" And Fina stopped talking as everyone else on the bridge just stared at her in surprise. She blushed and looked away. "It's a horribly crude and primitive attempt at reproducing Silvite high technology." She explained, glaring out of the forward bridge windows. "I won't know how badly De Loco's screwed up the design until we try it out for the first time, but just going over his schematics, it will require an enormous amount of spirit energy to power up. It's horribly inefficient. Leave it to me." She vowed, and Vyse gave her a nod.

"Okay, good enough." Her captain looked back to Aika. "Are the engines set for bridge control?"

"Yes they are." She gestured to the telemotor he had his hand on, and then to the EOT. "You'll have full control of the ship from right where you're standing. Aside from weapons."

"Just the way I like it." Vyse murmured. He swiveled his gaze to Enrique. "How are we coming along with disembarkation?"

"The last gantry cranes are moving out of our way, and we have green lights all the way to the main passage." Enrique told him. "The process may be automated, but flight control in the Grand Fortress _will_ be receiving a notification soon. If we don't move now, they'll override the launch and close the shipyard gates on us."

Vyse reached for the engine order telegraph, shoving it a click forward, and the ship hummed slightly as the maneuvering spinners with their smaller propellor blades started the _Delphinus_ forward. "Good thing we're moving. Aika, keep an eye on those engines for me, we're going to be putting them through their paces here."

"I didn't have the chance to tune the timing or balance them, so it could get a little shaky." The redhead warned.

"Wouldn't be one of our escapes if it didn't get a little rough." Vyse chuckled, and Fina stifled a giggle before she moved to the weapons controls and found the access panel for the Moonstone Cannon. Beside her, Gilder hummed thoughtfully.

"You sure you've got this, girl?" He asked her.

Fina set her hands on two silvery orbs that rested atop two heavily reinforced struts from the floor, the spirit energy feeder lines that led to the capacitors deep within the belly of the ship. She channeled up a spark of power and felt it drain into what seemed a bottomless well to her senses.

It was too hungry, too inefficient. It would take a normal person an hour to charge this weapon.

But she wasn't a _normal_ person. She was the last living priestess of the Silver Shrine, and they didn't have that much time. Her silver aura flared to life around her, and just by how Gilder looked terrified, she knew that her eyes had disappeared behind a permanent glow.

**"Leave it to me."** Her voice echoed against itself, and Gilder swallowed, edged away from the aura that whispered of life and death in equal measure, and manned his station.

With the berth now positioned to allow for their departure, Vyse nudged the _Delphinus_ forward along the path forward. Stone and steel passed around them as they slipped past one elevating shutter after another, and then the tunnel, sized just large enough for their ship, dumped out into a larger passage. Vyse quickly turned the wheel and whistled at the responsiveness of the large ship as it turned sharply to match, and they veered out until they were in the main passage between the Grand Fortress and the Valuan capital city.

A wall full of menacing cannons, some capable of firing shells easily ten feet across, blocked the path between them and freedom. That, and two Valuan frigates who slowly started to wheel about towards them.

"Well, they know we're here." Vyse droned.

The lead ship ahead of them suddenly began strobing them with light from an electrical signal lamp, the next generation beyond the hooded fuel lamps that ships had once used to speak to each other when flags were unavailable. **Attention, Delphinus. Your ship has not been authorized for departure. Set your engines to full stop and prepare to be boarded.**

"Yeah, like hell we're doing that." Aika snarled, after translating the flickering yellow floodlight for the Silvite. Fina listened to her lover with half of her attention, the rest of it focused on summoning up more and more power and feeding it into her aura.

"With your permission, Vyse, could I try something?" Enrique asked politely. Vyse looked over at him and nodded, and Enrique went to the communications panel, accessing the signal lamp's shutter control and releasing the lock. As he tapped out their reply on the tapboard beside the main switch, he spoke for the benefit of them all. "This is - Crown Prince Enrique - of the Valuan Empire. I am aboard - the _Delphinus_ \- with a crew - and we are currently - undertaking operations - to assist in the capture - of the air pirate Vyse. There is a chance - that he may attempt to steal a ship - and I intend to bar his path - if it comes to it."

There was silence for a very long minute, and the two ships slowed for a bit, but then they sped back up and continued on their approach. The lead ship's signal lamp flared back to life.

**Apologies, Prince Enrique, but we have orders from Grand Fortress control. Stand down and prepare to be boarded.**

Enrique sighed and looked over to Vyse, releasing the tap board's toggle and shutting the signal lamp's switch back to the off position. "Well, I did try the diplomatic route."

"You knew this wasn't going to be a bloodless escape, Enrique." Vyse consoled him. "It's not a bad quality to value life. Just be sure you value your own above the people who would harm you. You can't save anyone if you keep trying to die." He hardened his features. "Gilder. Can you take them out?"

The older air pirate grinned, ready for blood. "We'll try with the two side cannons first, see if we can't drop them without wasting all our ammunition in one go."

"Makes sense to me. Commence firing once you've got them dead to rights."

"They're flying like they're not expecting to take any fire." Gilder grinned, already turning dials and moving levers to adjust the firing arcs as he cross-checked with his sensors and visual displays. "They'll regret that."

Precious seconds ticked by, and Fina needed every one of them. The moonstone reservoir and capacitors which powered the Moonstone Cannon was almost a bottomless sink. She was starting to breathe hard, and Cupil separated from her forearm, reacting to her condition with his usual concern. When he realized she wasn't fighting, merely conjuring a stream of constant spiritual energy, the bio-engineered polymorph settled to linger close by in a slow orbit around her head. Her silver aura flared and guttered, waxed and waned. It never disappeared though, it just pulsed in time with her heart as she let the ship take more and more of her strength.

The Harpoon Cannon had never been this exhausting.

"Firing!" Gilder shouted, and the ship shuddered as the port and starboard rotating cannons unloaded with both barrels. The shells, high-explosive rounds, screamed through the air at the unwary frigates and buried themselves amidships before detonating, sending fire in every direction and blasting the hulls apart. The smoking wrecks of the frigates both started drifting down towards the stone floor at the bottom of the hollowed out passage. "Bagged 'em! Damn, what kind of firepower is this ship packing?! I've never taken down a Valuan frigate in a single salvo before, much less two simultaneously!"

**"You haven't seen the true power of this ship yet."** Fina said to him, her voice still resonating with unfathomable power.

"I think that our cover's blown, team." Vyse said dryly, taking note of the puffs of smoke lighting off from the smaller cannons along the Grand Fortress's cannon wall. He quickly brought the ship into wild evasive turns to throw off their aim. "And we still have to get through that wall."

Gilder hummed. "It should still be weak where I set that booby trap earlier. If we concentrate our fire there, we _might_ be able to break through." He looked to Fina. "Are you okay?"

**"I'll live. What's the charge at?"**

"Uh, about eighty percent? I think?" Gilder squinted at the gauge.

Fina wanted to groan but didn't dare risk breaking her concentration. So close. So far away. She'd poured so much of herself into the reservoir now, she could feel it draining into the conduits, feel how it moved through the capacitors, how the cannon's focusing channels struggled to bring it together.

So inefficient. So wasteful. So _primitive. _She would have sooner asked a caveman to make her a piece of holographic art.

**"Fly right for it, Vyse. You'll only have one shot."** She ordered him, and grimaced as she channeled up even more of her aura and _shoved it_ into the ship. It reacted, and a powerful hum sounded through the deck plating from the cannon at its heart.

It was like they'd built the ship around it, instead of adding the cannon after.

Fina watched in fascination as a targeting reticule was flashed onto the center bridge window panel from a recessed projector on the opposite side of the telemotor. Photoreceptive glass would have been a much simpler solution, but...It did the trick. Although, it seemed as though all Vyse would need to do would be to stare down the centerline of the hull and he'd be able to guide his shot just as easily that way.

The Grand Fortress was finally starting to fire in earnest, now that it was clear that their newest and most advanced ship was in the hands of a hostile force. It did them no good; Vyse was too skilled of a helmsman, and the cannons were fixed, embedded in the wall with only one firing line available for each of them. Save for decreasing the power load and hoping to get lucky with a shot that drifted down sooner than before? All Vyse had to do was line up on the damaged, out of commission cannon Gilder had sabotaged, and which still was belching smoke from a fire that had yet to be put out.

Fina was so tired, but she was also still angry as hell. She hung on as they closed the gap, as the _Delphinus_ flew closer and closer towards its goal.

Gilder let out a yell. "Moonstone Cannon charged!"

And at the helm, Vyse reached for a button by the telemotor which had finally come to life, glowing a brilliant green and flashing vibrantly. "Moonstone Cannon, _firing_!"

They heard the sounds of the entire front end of the ship being lowered down, and the cannon's long barrel extending out into firing position. For as many tons of metal as needed to be moved, it was only the work of five seconds. De Loco's automation was smooth and seamless.

A brilliant locus of light hung off of the bow, and Fina watched as Enrique and Vyse and Gilder and even Aika flinched from the glow of it. Fina alone did not look away. This was her power, her strength poured into the ship and combined with its own. Unbidden, the rage and anger for what Aika had suffered bubbled up to the surface, buoyed by her explosion of spiritual power, and she screamed in defiance as the beam fired. _**"Fuck you, Valua!"**_

It was blinding, and it was beautiful. And when it was loosed, the wave of energy and force screamed out like an unstoppable deluge. Right where Vyse had aimed it, the blast struck the Grand Fortress dead on in the weakened section of wall. Where it hit, metal and masonry and steel and wiring and everything else in 60 feet of reinforced defenses and works vaporized or was blown away as rubble that fell towards the abyss far below.

"Hang on!" Vyse screamed, and aimed the ship for the opening. Was it big enough? Had the blast done enough damage to clear them a straight path through?

Fina wondered, but the toll of it finally caught up to her and she slipped to the floor. She vaguely heard Gilder, then Aika, scream her name out, but…

But everything was dark, and the sound of an ocean of water roared in her ears, and she was so tired.

When she came to again, she found herself being held tightly by strong arms that smelled of sandalwood. Vyse's arms. And crouched in front of her, worrying her front lip and trying not to cry, Aika looked down at her.

"Did...did we make it?" Fina slurred, hating how her voice sounded. Her ears still roared.

"We made it." Aika told her, leaning down and kissing her lips gently. "We made it, Fina. You got the cannon ready in time."

"S'inn..ficient…" Aika tried to say. She needed to work on it. The Moonstone Cannon, as it was, was a kludge of slapdashed shoddy workmanship. The best Valua could make with their limited understanding of particle physics and atomic theory.

She could make it so much better.

"We're out, Fina. We're safe. We're _free_." Vyse promised, and her eyes fluttered shut as she felt his hand stroke through her hair underneath her veil.

"Good." She said, yawning a little. Vyse held her close, and Fina slipped into dreams.

* * *

_Mid-Ocean_

_108 Days After The (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Mid-Morning_

Vyse was quiet as he opened up the hatch that led to the captain's stateroom. When he looked inside, he saw Fina lying on the bed, still asleep, and Aika lying beside the exhausted girl, terrible longing writ plain in her eyes as she stroked Fina's hair away from her face. It was a marvelous four-poster bed, sized for royalty with plush comforters and a modesty curtain that, for the moment, was drawn up and away.

Aika must have sensed the disturbance, because her arm stilled and she looked towards the door. The worry she wore melted into fatigued relief and _love_ as she looked back at him and smiled. It was the easiest thing in the world for Vyse to smile back, and before he knew it, he found himself shutting the door as quietly as he could and sneaking over beside the bed. Aika brushed Fina's hair back one last time, kissed the Silvite's forehead, then eased herself off of the mattress and stood up, smoothing the wrinkles out of her leather skirt and bodice.

Vyse started to reach to embrace her, and though Aika didn't flinch as she had before, there was a moment when her eyes pinched up and she went stiff as a board. Vyse stopped his arms and held still, and waited. He waited for her to make the first move.

She did, at length, sinking her face into the crook between his neck and his shoulder, and breathing the smell of him in deeply as she brought her arms up and held tight to his chest. "I'm sorry."

"You have _nothing_ to be sorry for." Vyse told her, and put his own arms around her at last. He set his cheek against the top of her head, marveling in the feel of her hair out of its braids, hanging free and wild and _feminine_ all around her face. "I'm not upset, I'm not mad. I love you. I love you so much that it _hurt_ not knowing where you were, or if you were all right. Not knowing where Fina was, or if she was all right as well."

She laughed sadly, and her fingers traced loose patterns over his blue jacket on his back. "I was so worried about her too. They separated us right after they pulled us away from you and Gilder."

Vyse thanked all the Moons then, feeling fresh tears spring to his eyes. "I am lost without you two." He squeezed her again, sighing as Aika inhaled the smell of him, like she was trying to burn it into her memory. "How is she?"

Aika stilled for a moment, then exhaled on his neck. "She's sleeping. As far as I can tell, she's fine. Just...exhausted. You know how tired you get after casting too many spells? I think she did that about three times over. The amount of _power_ she was channeling...I can cast a lot of magic, too, Vyse, but I always thought hers was limitless."

"She found the limit today." Vyse mused.

Aika made a muffled noise of agreement, then kissed his neck right on his pulse point and pulled back to look into his eyes. "How are we doing?"

"For now?" Vyse mused softly, glancing at Fina one more time before looking to his hurting lover in his arms. "The _Claudia_ and the _Primrose_ are flying alongside us, looking absolutely tiny in comparison. Gilder's manning the helm, and Clara hasn't let him out of her sight since she came aboard. The Valuans only had a couple of pickets at the border and they decided they didn't want to tangle with three ships, especially since one of them was the _Delphinus_."

Aika beamed at the news before she sobered up. "We still need to find a place to hole up and resupply, though. And I don't think that the kind of shells the _Delphinus_ uses come cheap."

"I had a thought about that, actually." Vyse breathed. "I'm glad you're still up, I wanted to check with you first."

"You're the captain, why are you asking me?" Aika snorted.

"Because you're my First Mate." Vyse responded immediately. "Because your opinion has always mattered as much as mine has. Because when I asked you to sail out into the world and risk our lives, you didn't walk away." He smiled then. "Do you need more reasons or have I made myself enough of a fool for you?"

"I could think of a few more." She offered slyly. "But, okay. Enough. Where do you want to go?"

"Home." Vyse said, and waited for her reaction. The lack of it surprised him.

"Okay." Aika said five seconds later, shrugging slightly.

"Okay?" He repeated dubiously.

"Yes, Vyse. Okay." Aika repeated. "It makes sense. We need a safe harbor, and nobody knows the skies around Pirate Isle like we do, or where to hide a ship this size. Captain Dyne and the _Albatross_ crew are probably still rebuilding their ship in the wilderness northwest of home, and there's a good chance we'll be able to resupply and pick up the munitions we'll need to keep fighting. Not to mention that we're still missing our gear, and we'll need new weapons."

"True." Vyse admitted. "Although we're not hurting for funds. This ship has a rather sizable coffer of petty cash that Enrique has given over for the cause. It should be enough to purchase anything we need in the short term for supplies, repairs, and ship upgrades."

"Money that I'm certain our friends and family would be happy to trade for the gear we'll need." Aika smiled. "So yes. Let's go home. Although, knowing you, you have other reasons for wanting to."

Vyse slumped a little and chuffed in surrender. "I need to talk to my father. Ever since Ixa'taka, I've...had questions."

Aika nodded seriously. "I know. You deserve answers. To think that he was _Valuan_? That he _founded_ the Blue Rogues? And never bothered to tell you? That none of the Blue Rogues did?" She paused. "Although, on the other side of the coin, I wonder what you're going to tell your mother."

"About what?"

"About us, Vyse." She said, poking him lightly in the chest.

"What I need to tell her." Vyse said. "That you are loved, and so is Fina."

"She might not understand." Aika hummed, and Vyse realized she was _worried._

"Hey." He caught her chin, lifted her head up until she met his eyes. "It doesn't matter if she does. We're adults now. I think as long as we make each other happy, she'll be fine with it. Maybe not at first, but eventually?" He shrugged. "We figured it out. So will she."

"Good." She let go of him entirely and smiled. "Now get going, 've got a ship to run, and Gilder's not going to do it for you."

"Bossy." He stuck his tongue out at her, and Aika giggled. She settled back down when he looked past her to Fina. "You'll let me know when she wakes up?"

"First thing." She promised, but then she thought better of it. "Well, first I'll kiss her. Then I'll come get you."

"Give her one for me, all right?" Vyse asked, and then kissed Aika with enough warmth to leave his lips tingling after. She blushed and nodded.

"I think I can pass that on." Aika shoved him back a little. "Now get going, Vyse."

"All right, all right." He held up his hands and walked back out, glancing back long enough to see Aika climb back into bed beside their third love. He smiled and closed the door. His women would take care of each other.

When he walked back towards the bridge, his face was set and determined again. He was the captain. It was time to see about taking care of everything else.

* * *

_The Delphinus_

_Bridge_

Vyse hadn't even closed the hatch behind him when Gilder started speaking. "You sure do know how to break in a new ship, Vyse."

The Blue Rogue captain chuckled as he secured the hatch, then turned and winked through his telescopic eyepiece at the older air pirate. "As far as shakedown cruises go, I will admit that this one's been rather eventful." He looked over to Enrique,who looked more than a little peaked. "You all right over there, prince?"

Enrique hiccuped once and tried for a smile. "I apologize. I'm...urp...I've not been on a ship since I was a very young boy. I think I lost my sky legs." He leaned against the cartographer's table and breathed in slowly. "I will do my best to get them back."

"Relax, Enrique. You've got time." Vyse waved off the apology. "I just wish you'd been able to salvage our weapons when you stole the Moon Crystals."

"Your weapons, no." Enrique apologized, brightening as he reached for his duffel bag and pulled out a familiar enchanted rucksack. "However, I did requisition the rest of your belongings after Admiral Ramirez made port."

Vyse made a surprised noise and quickly grabbed it, sorting through the contents. "Incredible...My Sailor's Journal! You even saved all of the Moonfish we've been collecting!" He stared at Enrique. "Why would you take the time to grab this?"

"I was trying to learn of you from your belongings." Enrique said with a smile. "So much has been said about your exploits, I needed to understand the man behind them. I only had two hours with them before I realized that you couldn't be the bloodthirsty terrorist the admiralty has made you out to be. That was when I came looking for you in your cell, and…" The prince shrugged. "Needs must, and here we are."

Vyse's first impulse was to thank the man, but as he moved to slip the journal back into its usual pocket, a thin line of panic overtook him. "You read my journal, didn't you."

Enrique nodded. "Not all the way through. I had to stop after your account of the second Gigas fight in Ixa'taka. I knew your time was limited sitting in prison, and I wanted to talk to you in person while I had the chance. I decided I could always finish the rest later."

Vyse let go of the breath he'd been holding and tucked the journal away. He'd be needing a new one soon, but he didn't want anyone reading it. Except for Aika and Fina, perhaps. "This will help, Enrique. Thank you." Vyse gave the older prince another grateful nod before turning to Gilder. "How are things here, Gilder?"

"Mostly shipshape." The veteran air pirate explained. "Have you finished with your tour of the _Delphinus_, figured out where everything is?"

"There's a lot of open space yet, a lot of room for personalization. But all the basics are there." Vyse said. He gave Enrique a side-eyed glance briefly. "The Armada may be full of utter bastards, but they know how to build a ship. It just needs all the homey touches...a full arsenal of ammunition...supplies and replacement parts…"

"In short, basically everything." Gilder summarized. "Which brings me to my next point, kid. Now that we're out of Valuan airspace, I'll be parting ways with you while I still can. But I have three pieces of advice I wanted to pass on before I left."

Vyse cocked his head to the side, surprised at the offer, and nodded. "Okay. Shoot."

Gilder placed one hand on the telemotor and used the other to adjust his glasses. "First off; you need to find yourself a proper crew. Back when it was just you and the girls with that crazy old man Drachma and his converted fishing boat, you could manage well enough. But this is a Moons-damned _battleship_, and you aren't going to be able to do anything effectively if it's just the three of you."

"Four." Enrique cut in crisply. "I gave my oath of service to see this through as well."

"Until you take the Blue Rogues' Oath, prince, you're just a passenger in my eyes." Gilder kept going. "You have a lot of spots that need filling. A proper gunner's crew, for one, an engineer so Aika doesn't run herself ragged trying to keep everything maintained, a helmsman, a cook, a doctor...Long and short of it, Vyse, you're going to need a _lot_ of people to keep this thing in the air."

Vyse nodded. He'd been pondering that himself, if not as seriously as Gilder was. The _Delphinus_ was massive; flatly put, if they didn't get a decent crew, the Valuans would still be able to make short work of them. "Okay. So. We recruit a proper crew. What else?"

"You need a base." Gilder went on, lifting a second finger. "You can't stay on this ship for the rest of your life, after all. You'll need someplace to put into dock for repairs and modifications, not to mention get some much-needed relaxation for you and your crew. It needs to be an island or a part of a continent that you can conceal a base."

"I know what a proper Blue Rogues underground base should look like." Vyse said dryly, and Gilder laughed.

"Yeah, I'd imagine you do. Someplace off of the beaten path, but still close to the main sailing lanes would be ideal. Come to think of it, that island I found you on? Crescent Isle? That would be a _terrific_ place to set up shop."

Vyse thought about it for a bit and nodded. "Yeah. I suppose it would be. And it would be nice to give that place some positive associations. But we're not headed for it right away. We have one more stop to make first."

"Fair enough." Gilder rubbed at his chin. "Listen, I've got two older members on my crew; an engineer called Brabham and a master carpenter and builder named Izmael. They've been looking for a good challenge to round out their careers, and there's only so much work I have for them. Would you feel like taking them on?"

"I wouldn't turn down the help, but they'd have to agree to live by the Code of the Blue Rogues." Vyse pointed out. "Do you think they would be willing to do so?"

"It shouldn't be a problem." Gilder shrugged. "Just keep the work coming and the food and drink flowing and they're happy as a duck on a pond."

"In that case, I'd be happy to take them on. Moons know there will be plenty of work for them."

"True enough." Gilder grinned. "I'll drop them off at Crescent Isle with a few weeks' worth of provisions and let them know to expect you. Will that give you enough time to reach them so they can get started?"

Vyse ran the numbers in his head and nodded. "We'll make it to them before the rum's gone."

"Good." Gilder pulled himself off of the telemotor and clapped his hands together. "The last piece of advice I have for you? Never give up."

"Blue Rogues never give up." Vyse said automatically, then blinked. "I thought you didn't follow the Code."

"You warmed me up to it, kid." Gilder crossed his arms. "You really are Dyne's son." Vyse didn't flinch anymore at the association, but his smile did disappear on him. "For some reason, people follow you. Your father had that same kind of leadership, from all the stories I've heard about the man. When he broke away from Valua, others followed him. If anybody else had done it, they'd just be one rogue captain. Instead, Dyne founded a _coalition_ spread out over Mid-Ocean and got them all to play by his rules. No small achievement. You're going to end up doing the same thing." Gilder chuckled. "I mean, come on. You've taken down _three _admirals, fought two Gigers…"

"Gigas."

"Gigas, fine. You've escaped the Grand Fortress _twice now_, freed an entire air pirate crew out from under Valua's nose, discovered Daccat's treasure, liberated Ixa'taka…" Gilder removed his pince-nez glasses and tried to clean them. "The last I heard of you, your moniker was Vyse the Determined. Or the Respected. One of those. You're going places, kid. Just be the same determined Blue Rogue I know, and you'll do just fine." He looked at his glasses again and made a disgusted noise. "I need a clean cloth, these glasses won't shine up."

"I think that there might be some chamois wipes in the storage cabinets beneath the bridge consoles." Prince Enrique suggested. Gilder grunted in thanks and walked over to the portside cabinet, slamming the door open. He froze and blinked with wide eyes.

"What the…A stowaway?" Then there was a yell and a whump as a ratty duffel bag smashed the air pirate in the chest, and a scruffy, scrawny slip of a boy in dirty clothes leapt out and charged for the exit. Vyse got in his way, blocking him off and hoisting him into the air by the scruff of his collar.

"Let go a'me! Leggo, you Valuan bastards!" The voice picked at something familiar and nearly forgotten in Vyse's memory, and looked down and blinked at a mop of wild, filthy red hair made almost brown by the grime in it.

"...Marco?" Vyse uttered incredulously, and the boy's flailing came to a sudden stop.

Familiar eyes, sharp as the streets he'd grown up on, stared up at Vyse. The boy blinked, and Vyse blinked back and set him back down on the deck.

"Vyse?" The freckled, red-haired orphan rubbed at his eyes before looking at Vyse again in wonder. "Is it really you, Vyse?"

The Blue Rogue beamed. "Who else would I be, kid?" And Marco cracked out laughing and jumped into his arms, hugging him for dear life.

"How did you...how are you even…"

"Hey, slow down, Marco. Answer my question first. What are _you_ doing here? It's been months since I saw you, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing as crazy as you've been doing!" Marco gulped back a choking, tearful laugh. "Vyse, do you know how many people are _talking_ about you? Down in the Lower City you're a freaking legend! Every time a battered Valuan ship sails back in with news, it comes back to us! Punching the soldiers in their stupid faces every chance you get? Fighting off _monsters_? And escaping the Grand Fortress? There's even a _carnival game_ based on how you got clear of them!"

Vyse blinked while Gilder let out an enormous belly laugh. "You're joking."

"No, I'm not! The prizes are terrible for what they charge, but everybody tries to fly the ship through the door before it closes. Bragging rights!" He looked around in wonder. "But how are you here? This is Valua's newest battleship, how did…"

"Stole it. Blew a hole through the Grand Fortress and flew out to freedom." Vyse explained. Marco gaped at him, and Vyse laughed. "A carnival game. Well. Guess they'll have to update it now." He knelt down and stared at Marco. "But that doesn't explain how you ended up stowing away on the _Delphinus_."

Marco fidgeted. "I remembered what you told me. That I could make it out into the world if I was brave. So while you were out doing your thing and making the Valuan soldiers quake in their boots, I started sneaking around more often. I eventually figured out how to sneak into the Grand Fortress, and from there? I figured out which ship was setting out soon, but wasn't crewed yet. I figured I'd stow away on this ship with my sack of food, wait them out, and then get clear the next time they made port away from Valua."

"You did it, Marco." Vyse chuckled. "You're out here in the skies."

"Can I come with you?" Marco impulsively asked, and Vyse shut up. "Vyse, I...I can be helpful, I swear."

"I know you can be, Marco. I'm just…" Vyse started, and looked around for support. Gilder's gaze caught him dead-on, and the older man just nodded once at him, and held up a single finger.

His first piece of advice. Get a crew.

Vyse slumped in surrender and patted Marco's shoulder, coming back to his full height. "If you want to sail with me, Marco, then you will have to do so as a Blue Rogue. Can you do that?"

The boy straightened up. "Yes, Vyse!"

"Blue Rogues live by a Code." Vyse went on, his voice taking on a stern quality. "Are you willing to make that oath? Live as we live?"

"Yes!"

"Last thing, Crewman Marco." Vyse said, and he could see how Marco shivered in excitement and delight and _pride_ when he suddenly was given a title to go with his name. "Are you willing to call me captain?"

Marco stood at attention and gave a crisp, if wrong-handed, salute. "Yes, Captain Vyse."

Vyse took a step back and held out his hand. "We'll make a sailor out of you yet, Marco. Welcome aboard." Marco shook his hand, grinning to beat the band and crying just a little, and nobody said a thing to tease him about it. "Now. I'll bet you'd like to get something to eat and get cleaned up. It just so happens this ship has some impressive shower facilities, but all we've got are stock rations for the moment. I'm hoping to change that soon."

"It would probably taste better than what I've got stuffed in my bag." Marco shrugged.

"Good. Enrique, would you mind giving our newest crewmate the tour? Get him something to eat and see if there's some better clothes we could set him up with after he gets a shower in."

"I think that can be managed, 'Captain' Vyse." Enrique chuckled through his nausea, and Marco glanced over to the other man in the room for the first time. The young boy's eyes went wide.

"Wait. Aren't you…"

"Crown Prince Enrique of the Valuan Empire." Enrique bowed to Marco politely, then held out his hand. "I also asked Vyse if I could join with him. You are one of my countrymen, then? It would be my duty, and my pleasure, to help you get situated."

"Gee willickers." Marco mumbled, shaking his head as he took Enrique's hand, and was led off. "How the heck did he manage to talk you into leaving Valua behind?"

"Well, young Marco, that is quite the story. Perhaps I could tell it to you over a cup of tea and whatever we can scrounge up…"

Their voices faded, leaving Gilder chuckling under his breath. Vyse turned and raised an eyebrow at the other pirate. "What?"

"People follow you." Gilder repeated, winking. "And you don't see why yet, do you?" Vyse just stared at him, and Gilder waved the thought off. "Well. I've said my piece, so I'd best be heading out. You be sure to give the Valuans hell out there, Vyse, and I'll do the same. I owe them one now."

"You're leaving?" Vyse asked.

"This isn't my ship and I'm not a part of your crew." Gilder resolved. "Besides, the wild blue yonder's calling my name, and…"

Vyse frowned, and interrupted him. "You're just running from Clara again."

Gilder shut up and flinched. "Now, what makes you say that kid?"

"She's _right here_, she risked her life and the lives of her crew to help us escape. Her ship let off just as much cannonfire at the Great Fortress as the _Claudia_ did. She did it for you, Gilder."

Gilder slipped his glasses back on and looked up at the ceiling. "You think I don't know that?" He said wearily.

"I think you're trying to forget it." Vyse snapped. "What the hell is the matter with you? She's your match, Gilder! In every possible way!"

Gilder looked back down at him. "Vyse, she's crazy. An absolute lunatic. And I'm an air pirate, I've got no business…"

"Building a relationship with someone _normal_, yes." Vyse cut him off again, tired of the same old argument. "But she's a Blue Rogue, Gilder. She's taking the same risks, making the same hard decisions you do. She knows the danger of your lifestyle, she's _living it_. And the way she looks at you? It's almost exactly how Aika and Fina look at me. She loves you, Gilder, regardless of your faults. And believe me, you have plenty of those."

"Hey." Gilder winced. "I'm not _that_ terrible of a screwup." Vyse crossed his arms and stared at him, and Gilder eventually wilted and looked away again. "Kid, listen. Not everybody lives like you do."

"Not saying they have to." Vyse said. "But you've got two choices, Gilder. You can keep on running like you've been doing your whole life...or you can take a chance for something better."

"I just got out of one prison, kid. Why would I walk into another one?" Gilder shot back flatly. Vyse gaped in reply.

"You think _love_ is a _prison_?" The young Blue Rogue whispered. "Gilder, love doesn't trap you. It sets you _free_."

"You sure about that, kid?" Gilder asked softly. Vyse bared his teeth, refusing to back down. The older air pirate shrugged. "Okay. I'll think about it. Will that do?"

"Don't fly off and leave her behind, Gilder." Vyse warned him. Gilder laughed in reply, waving off the warning as he headed for the door.

"Please. She'd chase after me."

"Some day she won't, Gilder." Vyse warned him, and that stopped the other air pirate cold. "You complain about her. You call her crazy. But ask yourself; do you really want to see what your life would be like if she wasn't around?"

Gilder stumbled a bit at that and looked back at him incredulously. Vyse met his expression with a hard stare. "Think about it. And fly safe."

"Yeah. You take care of yourself, kid." Gilder tried to smile and waved, but Vyse knew he'd landed a solid hit by the way it came off as more of a grimace. The air pirate walked off of the bridge, and Vyse sighed and looked around the nerve center of the massive battleship.

"First thing we're adding. Chairs." He said to himself, already eyeing where they would go next to the consoles. The thought didn't last long, as he soon drifted back to Gilder, and to Clara.

Vyse wondered if the pirate would finally change enough to let her into his heart. He needed to, or he would lose her forever. Just like Vyse had almost lost Aika and Fina.

"Blue Rogues Fly Free." Vyse told himself, and went to the helm, watching as Gilder walked out onto the foredeck and fired a shot into the air to signal his ship. He shook his head and turned his thoughts to Aika and Fina.

By a miracle, they had escaped the Grand Fortress. By an act of faith, the Crown Prince of the Empire had turned rogue, given them a ship and the Moon Crystals and their supplies, given them a chance. Now, his very first crewmember had stumbled into his lap.

Let it not be said that Vyse didn't know how to take a hint. He grinned and set a hand on the top spoke of the telemotor. The Moons were all but screaming for him to save Arcadia and stop Valua if even its prince wanted to help him.

_People follow you_, Gilder had said.

"If you would be free…" Vyse mused, thinking of all the lives they had touched. Would touch.

Valua had spent 20 years brutalizing the world. All of that pain would come back to it as a storm.

A storm of blue.

* * *

_The Claudia_

_108 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Early Evening_

Gilder had returned from the _Delphinus_ intent on pulling away and flying as quickly as his blockade runner could manage away from the _Primrose_ and Clara before she got wind of his departure. It had been his practiced, standard maneuver ever since he'd first realized she wanted more from him than a one-night stand. The crew had been expecting it, given their chuckles as his first mate asked for the order.

And yet the words from his lips hadn't been _'hoist the sails and all ahead full'_, but the stunning, _'hold fast for now.'_ They had all stared at him, and it took Gilder a moment to process what he'd said. Then he ducked out of sight and went back to his cabin, and poured himself a tall glass of rum, sat down on his couch, and tried to figure out why he felt so poleaxed.

It had to be the kid's fault, he decided after the first thirty minutes. The _Delphinus_ pulled away, and he glanced out the window as the massive ship departed the eddies of Mid-Ocean, leaving the _Claudia_ and the _Primrose_ behind. The kid and his two women were all together, _ridiculously_ in love with each other, and had no qualms about sharing each other. It flew in the face of everything Gilder thought he'd known about romance, and then the kid took it upon himself to start giving _him_ advice about love?

But it wasn't really Vyse's relationship that ate at him, Gilder thought. After another hour of deep introspection, marred only by his first mate sticking his head in long enough to give the midday report and confirm that the order to stand fast hadn't changed, he reached that conclusion. So, Vyse loved two women who loved him and who also loved each other, and they were all _definitely_ sexually active. Just because he still had trouble wrapping his head around it didn't make it any less valid.

No, it had to be something else that made his head fuzzy. He'd been drinking his rum very slowly, just a sip every so often that made it seem like evaporation would empty the glass before he did. It had to be what the kid had told him. Like he was so damn sure he knew what Gilder wanted even more than Gilder did. And that line of his. _'Love doesn't trap you. Love sets you free.'_

Maybe, _maybe_ it had set Vyse free. But there was no guarantee that it would do the same thing for Gilder.

And yet...when Gilder found himself in the most impenetrable prison in all of Arcadia, Clara hadn't hesitated to put herself and her ship, her crew, on the line to save him.

So maybe _love_, which Clara loudly and gleefully professed out at the drop of a hat, had set him free.

By his third hour of drinking, Gilder had given up trying to blame Vyse. Nothing the young Blue Rogue had said was wrong. He _was_ running. If he kept it up, Clara _would_ eventually stop chasing after him. He'd always said that was the whole _point_ of it, trying to escape her clutches. But it wasn't like he hated her, far from it. Calamity Clara had been the one woman in all of his trysts that had matched him step for step; she could drink him under the table, she could fight just as ferociously, and her generosity always gave him pause. No, he'd run for another reason. His whole life, he'd lived by his own more flexible code of conduct, guided by the personal freedom he'd always reveled in, and the insistence that he didn't need love, not the settling down, permanent kind. But he'd run from Clara, and never stopped running. Because...because he was afraid.

By his fourth hour of drinking, finally on his second glass of rum, Gilder started to hate himself. Hating himself came easy. He'd been running from Clara since the fifth day he'd known her. She was bright and hopeful and _drop dead gorgeous_ and…

And he didn't deserve her. Gilder's eyes drifted around the room, taking in the sight of his cabin and the walls covered in one portrait after another. He'd bragged about them, all of his 'conquests' when Vyse had been in here, and Vyse had looked on them, looked on him, with such terrible disgust. Vyse had never backed down from his position, never even wavered in his belief that Gilder was wrong, and that he was cheating himself out of something better.

Gilder had always told everyone who asked about them, always told himself, that it was about creating a memory he could take with him. Now, though, he stared at them and just saw one picture after another of all the women he'd been with and never bothered to try for more.

He stared at them through rum-soaked eyes, with Vyse's words burning through him, and he didn't see the warm memories he'd always deluded himself with before. He saw one missed opportunity after another.

Gilder the Unfettered. Gilder the free. Gilder the unchained, the untethered, the confirmed bachelor.

He lurched to his feet, went to the closest wall, and started taking all of his portraits down.

Gilder was halfway done with the task when his cabin door opened again. "For the last time, Clyde, we're not going anywhere. Tell the boys to relax and open up another bottle of rum!" He shouted over his shoulder.

"I'm not Clyde." A distinctly feminine voice answered from his doorway, and Gilder shivered in recognition. He turned, one hand holding a nearly full sack of art and the other with another small portrait just about to join it. Calamity Clara herself stood in the door to his room, trapping him inside of it, and for once, she wasn't a bubbly, perky mess. The red-haired woman seemed almost concerned. She stared at him, and Gilder gawked back at her. "Usually, after I catch up with you, you manage to run away from me. You didn't run this time Gilder."

"Would it have done any good?" Gilder blurted the question out without thinking.

"Well, no." She conceded. "But...you always run."

Gilder finally broke his eyes away from hers and kept stowing the portraits of the beautiful women he'd slept with over the years. "I couldn't think of a good place to run to, I guess." He explained. "This whole business with the Grand Fortress and all."

"Hm." Clara came into the room and let the door close behind her. She seemed pensive, and folded her arms as she came close to him. "I would think that experience would rattle anybody."

"Yeah." Gilder kept working. It gave his hands something to do. It gave him an excuse not to look at her. "You knew the girls...Aika and Fina, from before, right?"

Clara laughed once. "Yes. I rescued them after their shipwreck."

"Just like I rescued Vyse." Gilder hummed.

Clara came to within four feet of him and then stopped. "I'm glad they found each other. Those girls were so distraught without their man."

"He wasn't much better, to be honest. Until they showed up in Daccat's labyrinth, it was like Vyse was just...going through the motions." He breathed. "You know, Clara, they confused me? I didn't understand how it would work between them. But...it does."

"It's love, Gilder." Clara smirked, and he could taste the smile in her words. "It doesn't have to make sense."

"Hm."

"What are you doing, anyways? Redecorating?"

"Just putting some pictures away." Gilder said, trying to be diplomatic. He wouldn't brag about this. Not again.

Never again.

"Why?" Clara asked, more hushed than before, and her hand crept over and touched his elbow. It made him still and stop the work, and he bowed his head.

"Because something they all tried to tell me is finally sinking in." He confessed. Gilder swallowed down the guilt and reached for another one, but then her hand shifted, went to his wrist, and pulled it back from the next portrait.

"No." She said, and he turned and looked at her. She was smiling now, softer than he'd ever seen her smile in years, with a warmth that made heat blossom in his chest. "Leave them up."

"What?" He blinked through his glasses. "Why?"

"Because you're a wonderful painter." She explained with a small giggle. "It may be their faces, Gilder, but it was your brush."

Her attitude confused him. "I...would have thought you'd be jealous. If I left them up." He struggled to say.

"You were taking them down, Gilder. You were taking them _all_ down…" Clara stepped in a little more closely, until she could push the bag away and down and stand in the circle of his arms. She lifted his other arm up and pointed it over her shoulder to a bare wall, bare save for one portrait.

Clara's own. "All of them except _mine_." She looked at it longingly for a few seconds, then turned and looked up into his eyes, her own misty. "That tells me a lot."

Gilder swallowed. "So, Clara. If...If I were to...that is, how would you feel about...sailing with me for a while?"

She stared at him, and the coyness sublimated away. His heart froze in his chest at the nervousness, the openness...the _weakness_ in her face then. "You really aren't running away, are you?" Clara whispered, dancing between hope and fear.

Gilder dropped his sack and pulled her into his arms completely, wrapping them around her and holding her gently. She ducked her head under his chin, and he breathed in the smell of her copper red hair.

"I'm _done_ running." He declared. "I want something more. I want what Vyse has."

She slumped against him then, and he held her tight, keeping her up, cursing himself for all of his wasted years. Clara trembled, shaking like a leaf, and he kissed her hair. "I want what Vyse has." He whispered again, just in case she hadn't believed him.

"There's only _one_ of me, you know." Clara finally answered, heartsore and yet shining brightly, brighter than she ever had before.

"Good." Gilder hummed, and slipped a hand around to cup at her chin and lift her face away from his chest. Clara's eyes were as red as his own felt, and he could see her, the _real_ her, at last.

Just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

He would never run away from her again.

Gilder smiled, traced the curve of her lips with his thumb. "I might actually be able to keep up that way." And then he kissed her.


	21. No Secrets Between Us

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Twenty-One: No Secrets Between Us**

_Mid-Ocean, Beneath the Silver Moon_

_110 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

Each of them had their own quarters. Vyse would have loved to just stay with his loves in the captain's quarters and not come out until they got to Pirate's Isle, but with only Marco aboard with the duties of a sailor and Vyse having a ship to sail which Aika had to keep running with severely limited personnel and Enrique struggling with airsickness, wiling away the hours in the bedroom was hard to do. But they made the time to, even if it was just for cuddling.

This morning, Fina needed the cuddling. She had told them both that she needed to tell them about Ramirez. About the truth of him. But she had been trembling so badly last night before Aika went to stand watch at the helm for the last leg of the journey, that Vyse had said it could wait until morning.

Now it was morning and Fina had breakfast to make and Vyse had a helmsman's duties to relieve Enrique of for the last leg of the flight back home. But they made the time. So now Vyse spooned up behind Fina on one side, and an exhausted Aika lay facing her and gently stroking her bare arm while Fina lay in a sleeveless nightgown taken from the ship's stores.

The Silvite breathed in and out, and touched the strong band of Vyse's forearm beneath her bosom, as if drawing strength from his presence.

"We're here, Fina." He said to her gently. "It's okay."

Fina made a soft hum, and her head shifted ever so slightly. Aika's eyes moved from the girl's face to Vyse's, and she gave him a nod.

"Ramirez…" The Silvite began hesitantly. "Ramirez is a Silvite. Ten years ago, the Elders of my people learned that Valua was expanding, that they wanted to conquer the world, and they were developing technologies that would, in time, threaten to bring down the Rains of Destruction. He was fourteen years old, and I was seven. He was the one that they had been training to serve as their agent. He would play games with me in the Silver Shrine when I was little. He was like my big brother. I trained as a priestess, I studied magic and languages and engineering when I could get away with it." She reached a hand out and took Aika's. "But Ramirez...he was their ultimate warrior. His skill with a blade was _deadly_, and he could wield the power of the Silver Moon to make his strikes hyperlethal. So when the Elders needed to investigate, they sent him. And we never heard from him again. They thought he was lost. Dead."

"But he wasn't." Vyse surmised, and his free hand stroked through the fabric of her nightgown, tracing circles around her navel. "He joined with Valua. He's been _helping_ them."

Fina crumpled a bit, and Aika made a surprised noise. "That friend you always talked about. When you were little. The one who brushed your hair...it was _him_?"

Vyse stopped moving his fingers over Fina's abdomen, listening as the blond stilled and then let out a single sob.

"Oh, Fina." Aika whispered, and stroked at her hair. "Fina, I'm sorry."

"I don't know him anymore." Fina sobbed, and Vyse pulled her in tighter to him. The Silvite squirmed, rolled over, and buried her face into his chest. "How could he? How _could he_? This ship has a _Moonstone Cannon_ in it. That's Silvite technology! He's...he's _helping them_, and driving the world towards the Rains of Destruction all over again!"

"They won't win." Vyse promised her, while Aika kept stroking her hair. "We're going to stop them. Stop _him_. He's a good swordsman? Then I'll just have to get better. Because I've got more to fight for than he does. And we've got time. They're _reeling_ right now. The Moon Crystals? Ours again. Their newest ship, also ours. Their Grand Fortress just had a massive _hole_ blown through it, which means that they'll either have to risk being attacked or pull back their ships to protect it while they make repairs."

"He would have killed you." Fina tried to pull herself together. "He would have killed both of you."

"I'm still here." Vyse promised her, squeezing her tight, as Aika kissed the girl's neck and shoulders. "Fina, we're still here."

* * *

_Pirate's Isle_

_3 Hours Later_

Vyse hadn't been home in over one hundred days. Months of time. When he had climbed aboard the _Little Jack_ with Aika and Fina and Drachma and bid his farewells to his father and mother and everyone else he called friends and former shipmates, the upper part of the island had still been covered in burned out homes blown down by cannonfire and debris.

Many of the island's structures _had_ been rebuilt since then, but not all of the houses he had expected from his memorized layout were there anymore.

There was a storehouse gone. Another house was missing, and a second field had been plowed in its place. Vyse's house had been painstakingly replicated. So had Aika's. And as they flew down towards the village in a motorized landing boat, having left the _Delphinus_ parked off of one of the anchoring islands adjoining the main one, the streets were empty.

"Your home looks...cozy." Prince Enrique said, trying for a charitable observation.

"It looks empty." Marco said, leaning over the side, and Vyse quickly reached a hand out and grabbed a hold of the back of his shirt to keep him from leaning beyond the point of no return. "You sure people live here, Vyse?"

"If they didn't, Marco, they wouldn't have bothered to rebuild everything." Vyse told him.

"Almost everything." Aika murmured, seeing the differences as clearly as he did. "And aren't you supposed to be calling him 'captain' now, slugger?"

"Hey!" Marco protested, moving back to the middle of the transport boat and throwing off Vyse's grip. "He said to call him captain on board the _Delphinus_. We're not on board the _Delphinus_ right now. So there." And then the boy stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry at Aika, who puffed up angrily even as Fina giggled into her hand.

Vyse sighed and rubbed the kid's raggedy mop of hair, which was much cleaner and brighter than before. He almost looked _decent_ for once, and the last couple of days he'd been eating well. "Fair enough. Don't worry about it, Aika. Blue Rogues don't stand on formality much, remember. Long as he takes orders and follows them when it's important, he doesn't have to call me captain all the time." Vyse paused. "Just when he wants something." He concluded, grinning.

The grin faded when he looked back at Pirate Isle and kept steering the landing boat down to the outcrop used for docking. The boat's engine was new, well-oiled, and tuned, and let out only the faintest puttering as he guided them in for a landing and engaged the hoverbrake.

The five of them stepped off the boat, and the silence closed in around them oppressively. Vyse took in a slow breath and scanned the perimeter. "There's people here." He said softly, pointing to a chimney where puffs of light-colored smoke and steam from a pot of soup or a pan of casserole was cooking. Then he glanced back up at their ship, anchored and idling and nearly dwarfing the island. "They're probably hiding because they think we're Valuan."

"Well, you do technically have two Valuans here with you." Enrique pointed out, his queasiness slow to abate even as they stood on solid ground again. "Do your people always hide?"

"At least since Lord Galcian showed up and firebombed our island to the ground." Aika said, and under her flat tone was worlds of untold rage that made the prince flinch and look away. The redhead must have realized how badly he took it, because she sighed and set a hand to her head. "Listen, Enrique, I...I know you didn't do it. You weren't responsible for what Galcian did."

"They are still my people. And I am the Crown Prince." Enrique said, the words hard and bitter.

"When they start taking orders from you instead of your mother and Mr. salt and pepper beard, then you can start dragging yourself over the coals." Vyse cut in, glaring at Enrique. "Not before. If you could have done anything else to effect change, you wouldn't have come with us. Right?"

The words were a little harsh, but they were full of hard truth, something he needed to hear. Enrique let out a sigh and nodded. "Yes. Thank you, Vyse."

"Don't mention it." The Blue Rogue looked over to Aika. "You mind giving our neighbors a shout so they know they're not under attack?"

"Yeah, why not. They put my parent's house back together, after all." She cupped her hands around her mouth and let out a loud bellowing yell. **"Hey! Come on out, everyone! Olly-olly-oxen-free!"**

The laugh burst out of Vyse without any control at all; there were plenty of code phrases that the Blue Rogues had developed for use whenever the island had visitors, but Aika had come up with that one when they were seven, right before they went on their first mission. Unsurprisingly, none of the other Blue Rogues under his father had ever used that one. It was wholly an Aika-only trait, and it had the desired effect.

The island's three middling children, Lyndsi, Jimmy and Alan came barreling out of one of the houses screaming Aika's name, while Pow chased after them barking all the while. "Aika! Aika's back! And Vyse!"

The happy shouts of the children also brought a couple of the adults back out of hiding as Vyse and his merry band came down the rebuilt ramp to the village square. Martha was a welcome sight, but when her husband Briggs came out behind her, Vyse was a little taken aback.

His father's vice-captain had nothing but smiles and warmth as he ran up to them all, brushed his extended hand aside, and pulled Vyse in for a bone crushing hug. "Thank the Moons you're still alive." Briggs laughed. "When we spied a new Valuan ship closing in…"

"Stolen." Vyse coughed, patting the older man on the back until Briggs let go of him. "Good to see you too, Briggs."

Meanwhile, Pow and the 'trouble trio' as Vyse thought of the two boys and the one girl who always accompanied the village's mascot Huskra wasted no time in bounding up to Aika and Fina and hounding them with questions.

"You're back! You're okay!"

"Where _were_ you? You were gone for so long!"

"Is that your _ship_? Where'd you get that ship?"

"I want a ride on it!"

"Me too!"

"Me too, me too!"

"Now, come on you three." Aika laughed, sounding the most like herself that she had in days. The redhead knelt down in front of them and gave each of the kids a hug. "Where else would we have been? We were out causing trouble for Valua, that's what we were doing!" And then she looked to the two other members of their party who fidgeted, and grinned. "Oh, we brought you a friend too. Marco, come over here."

Marco grumbled a bit but did as Aika asked, shuffling over with his head pointed down.

"Marco, this is Lyndsi, Alan, and Jimmy. Kids, this is Marco. He's from Valua, and he doesn't have a lot of friends."

"He doesn't?" Lyndsi exclaimed, the blond-haired girl's eyes going wide. She got a determined look in her eye and came forward, grabbing at Marco's hand. "I'll be your friend. People need friends."

"I...I mean, what?" Marco stammered, shocked that the girl was being so forward. Vyse knew why he was so stymied. Lyndsi's bubbly happiness went against everything the boy's hard-knock life had drilled into him. He jerked his head over to Vyse, seeking instructions, and Vyse just chuckled.

"Why don't you and the boys go play with Marco for a while, Lyndsi? And I bet he'd love some of your mother's cookies."

"Play? Cookies? What?" Marco stammered again, as Lyndsi tugged on his arm and started dragging him away.

"You're from Valua? You don't look mean. Everyone from Valua is mean!" Lyndsi kept on going, chattering a mile a minute, and the other two boys trailed after the pair of the girl and the panicking Marco, adding to the chaos.

Aika broke out into another wild laugh and Fina giggled through her hand. Vyse cracked a wide smile. "I think I might have created a monster there."

"That's not all you've done." Briggs muttered, looking over to Enrique with narrowed eyes. "Vyse, is that who I think it is?"

Enrique doffed his beret and bowed formally. "I am Enrique du Valua, Crown Prince of the Empire."

"He's with us." Vyse said, cutting off the head of steam he could feel building beneath Briggs' skin. His wife Martha made a surprised noise at the revelation, and Vyse elaborated. "We couldn't have broken out of the Great Fortress the second time without his help."

Briggs paled. "Perhaps we'd better discuss this inside." He said, and pointed back towards his house.

"There's a lot to discuss." Vyse went on, not to be denied. "For starters though, we need to hide the _Delphinus_. Is my father here, or is he still back at the hidden base?"

"...He's still there. Along with your mother and the rest of the crew still working on rebuilding the ship." Briggs conceded, side-eyeing Enrique. "Do you vouch for the prince here?"

"We can't help who our fathers are." Vyse grumbled, tired of the run-around. "And I have questions for dad. And you."

"About what?" Briggs asked, puzzled.

"About the founding of the Blue Rogues twenty years prior, I would think." Enrique offered diplomatically. "I have been in Vyse's company for three days now, but even I could see it weighs heavily on his mind."

"All my life, I was told that the Blue Rogues stood against tyranny and oppression." Vyse snarled. "I didn't know that we were born from it."

Briggs sighed, and ran a hand over the back of his head. "It's complicated, Vyse."

"What isn't?" Vyse muttered, walking past Briggs. "I'm going to go talk with Marco and make sure he knows we're not abandoning him here, and then we're flying the _Delphinus_ out to Alpha Base."

"I'm sure it will make your father so pleased to see a new model of Valuan warship sailing straight for his door." Briggs pointed out sarcastically. "And in royal purple, no less."

"If you know where we can get a few hundred gallons of weatherized blue paint, you're more than welcome to spruce it up." Vyse countered dryly.

* * *

_Blue Rogues Alpha Base _

_Sky Rift Valley (Northwest of Pirate Isle)_

_112 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Alpha Base was nowhere near as grand as the underground harbor on Pirate Isle, but it did have the benefit of being so obscure and off of the beaten path, tucked into a set of lush and wild islands covered in forests and mountain ranges sitting crowded between multiple sky rifts that nobody would have dared to settle there.

At least, nobody that wasn't a Blue Rogue or a smuggler. Or in Dyne's case, both.

The Delphinus lay hovering in a wide crevasse with a wild forest jutting up on either side of it, and an enormous camouflaged tarpaulin stretched out above it. Faint traces of light filtered through the canvas covered in sewn on greenery. They kept the thing idling to maintain its hover as there was no docking facility anywhere large enough to accommodate it. Not even the underground base on Pirate Isle could have fitted the _Delphinus_.

Tucked away into a cavern that had been painstakingly hollowed out further along the valley in a wall, Alpha Base housed a significant cache of emergency supplies and gear that Dyne and the crew of the _Albatross_ had squirreled away over the years. It had ended up being their saving grace, because keeping that much materiel off base had clearly allowed them to start building their next ship soon after.

"You've been busy." Vyse said, sizing up the outer hull of the _Albatross II _as he stood beside it.

"Not as busy as you, apparently." Dyne answered him, standing at a distance away from his son. When they'd arrived, there had been a few moments of panic before Vyse and Briggs had emerged and given the report for _all clear-bringing visitor_. Then his mother had descended on him with a happy wail and hugs and kisses for him, and then for Aika and even Fina.

Enrique had been the shock that broke the reunion, and there had been a fair amount of awkwardness there. Everyone had seemed more than willing to table further discussion and return to the work at hand. Vyse had questions, but Briggs had asked him before they arrived to at least speak to his father about it in private.

"It's been an eventful voyage." Vyse conceded. "What have you heard?"

"Just the scuttlebutt from the merchants that have passed through." Dyne said. "That you sailed into the desert and fought off a red monster and the admiral controlling it. Then there was talk of a new land that Valua had kept hidden for years, Ixa'taka. And another monster."

"Recumen and Grendel." Vyse explained. "The Gigas of the Red and Green Moons." He made a face. "Admiral Belleza tried to kill us with Recumen, and would have won if we hadn't outflown her. And Grendel…" He shivered there. "Fina was _furious_ at the king for unleashing it. The man did it to fight off the Valuans and free his people, but it almost cost them everything. Grendel survived the Rains of Destruction, and her ancestors had to come and put it to sleep. It came too late for the Green Civilization. It's why Ixa'taka is a primitive society now." Vyse let that sit there between them for a while, giving his father a chance to digest the horror of monsters that survived the breaking of the ancient world and admirals and kings who thought they could be controlled.

Then Vyse dredged up his anger. "There was another Blue Rogue in Ixa'taka. Centime the Tinker."

"Centime?" Dyne's head shot up, and father and son looked at each other, Dyne in surprise and Vyse with anger.

"He told me a few things about the Blue Rogues I didn't know. Things about you."

Dyne didn't flinch, didn't pale, didn't look guilty. He just kept up the stare between them. "So. You know, then."

"Were you ever going to tell me that you served under a Valuan flag? That you were the _enemy_ once?!" Vyse snarled.

Dyne sighed and folded his arms. "I'm not from Valua, Vyse. Neither is your mother. We both grew up in the islands under the silver moon. So did Aika's mother. Her father was a Nasrian merchant. You have to understand, Valua was very different before the war 20 years ago. The King was still alive. The Queen was always high strung, but she was happier then. Valua didn't fancy itself an empire, but it was prosperous. For those of us who wanted to make something of ourselves, to belong to something that we could be proud of?" He shrugged.

"Then it changed, is that what you're telling me?" Vyse accused him.

"It _did_ change." Dyne muttered. "The king was killed. The queen found herself with a five year old son and the task of holding herself and her son's kingdom together. It broke her, I think. And then Galcian...Galcian slipped in with promises of glory and vengeance and expansion so that nobody would ever threaten Valua again. He ended up as Lord Admiral, in charge over all the more senior officers."

"How long?"

"What do you mean?"

"How long did it take before you and the others quit?"

"Not long at all." Dyne said. "The first time I was given an order that I knew was wrong? To firebomb an island who refused to bend to Valua's will? I met with the other officers on board that I knew were sympathetic. I was the first lieutenant then, vice-captain on my ship. Centime was the engineer."

Vyse nodded and turned to look back at the _Albatross II._ "Why didn't you ever tell us? Tell Aika and me the truth?"

"It wasn't important." Dyne said, then sighed when Vyse hissed at it. "What do you want me to say, son? Did I feel guilty? Yes, but not enough. I'm not ashamed of where I started out. I am ashamed that the rest of the Admiralty stood by and let it happen. Especially Gregorio. If anyone should have stood for what Valua was supposed to be, I would have thought it would be him."

Vyse could have just kept being angry, really. It would have been too easy. But really, hadn't secrets caused enough hurt in his life? And the Blue Rogues...they were few in number. Scattered. Centime was in Ixa'taka. His father was here, still rebuilding. Clara was out in the wind, and with any luck, Gilder was finally listening to his heart.

"You'll tell me the truth from now on?" Vyse asked his father, finally turning away from the ship to look back at him.

Dyne looked relieved at the opportunity. "Yes. You're a captain of the Blue Rogues in your own right. And now you have a ship of your own."

"Why Blue?" Vyse asked him. "I get why you split from Valua, why you did. But why that color?"

Dyne scratched his chin, and looked a little embarrassed. "It's not as important as you seem to think, Vyse."

"Why, then?"

"Blue is your mother's favorite color." Dyne said. Vyse stared at his father, then let out a disbelieving laugh. Dyne ended up laughing as well. "I'm serious. And since none of us really felt like calling ourselves pirates...Well. We became Rogues. Blue Rogues." Father and son kept chuckling for a good ten seconds afterwards, and Vyse shook his head.

"Unbelievable."

"Valua wasn't always the monster it is now." Dyne kept on, turning serious again. "The Blue Rogues? We are what the Armada should have been."

"Protect the weak. Stand against tyranny. Never back down. Fly free." Vyse uttered, repeating the hallmarks of the Code. "You know, dad, I've been thinking about the Code of the Blue Rogues a lot lately. It seems...unfinished."

"You want to add more to it?"

"I think I need to. After everything we've seen, experienced? Fought against?" Vyse shook his head. "If we're going to give people something to rally behind, the Blue Rogues need to change. It's not enough to fight Valua, dad." He clenched his hand into a fist for a moment, and then released it. "We have to give them something better to replace the Empire with."

His father stared at him for several long seconds, long enough that Vyse wondered if he'd gone too far, said something that offended him. But then Dyne took the two steps that separated them and pulled him into his arms, and hugged him tightly.

"You have become a good man, Vyse." Dyne said, and his voice was tight, on the verge of tears. "You'll be the best of all of us."

"...I just want you to be proud of me, dad."

"I've always been proud of you, son." Dyne choked out, and Vyse buried his eyes into his father's shoulder to hide his own tears. That proximity was the only reason he caught the slight quake in his father's stance. "I just hope that you're still proud of _me_."

"Always, dad." Vyse answered him, and held on tight. "Always."

* * *

_Pirate Isle_

_114 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

Suppertime on Pirate Isle, for Vyse and Aika and Fina (And Enrique), was held at his parent's house. It had been months, but he could still remember the last time that they had all been under one roof before. Fina had been so surprised by everything back then, and Aika had been almost sulking.

That wasn't how their dinner progressed tonight. Both his father and his mother were eager for every detail of their journey, and Aika sat next to Fina, almost shoulder to shoulder with the Silvite as they laughed when Vyse recounted how they'd ended the threat of the Larso pirate clan in Maramba.

His mother dabbed at her eyes with a napkin and tried to get a handle on herself. "You...you're telling me that, that...that all that precious little boy wanted to do was go make carpets with his mother?"

"Swear by the Moons, mom." Vyse chuckled. "You know, we should check in with him again sometime. He did offer to give us one of his carpets for free as thanks for helping him find the courage to speak up to his bodyguard about it."

"You face your enemies in battle and find the strength of character to change them." Enrique praised him. "You have a rare gift, Vyse. There is as much of a peacemaker about you as there is a warrior. I am glad to be with you."

"I must admit, Prince Enrique, I was surprised to see you again, and in the company of my son no less." Dyne said, shifting the conversation to a more serious topic.

Enrique paused, his fork hovering over his mashed greens. "We've met before, Captain Dyne?" He asked.

"A long time ago." Dyne said, not yet smiling at the man. "You would have been...four? Not quite five years old? Your father was still alive, he was making a tour of some of the ships of the Armada, not long before the Valua-Nasrian war began."

Enrique smiled faintly. "I regret that I do not remember that event very well. I did like being on ships as a child, I think. But I do have a clear memory of my father's funeral, and...mother." He pursed his lips and looked down. "Was Valua _ever_ good?"

Vyse looked between the prince and the first Blue Rogue. Dyne leaned back in his seat.

"What do you mean by that, Prince Enrique?"

"Uncle Gregorio...well, Admiral Gregorio, he just let me call him uncle, he almost raised me afterwards. Mother was too busy running the empire after father passed away, and Gregorio always said a true Valuan acted with honor and virtue in every part of their life."

Dyne stroked at his chin. "I see."

"Was he wrong?" Enrique asked again. "Was I raised to believe that Valua was something it never was? Was all of the talk about honor and virtue and service nothing more than empty platitudes used by corrupt men like Galcian to crush the weak under their feet?"

"You've worried about this a lot." Dyne stated, drinking from his glass of smallbeer to prolong his response.

"He _did_ commit treason to help us escape, dad." Vyse pointed out. "I think he's past the point of worrying."

"So he is." Dyne agreed. He sized up the prince and nodded. "Your father was a good man. He was a noble king, well-respected. When storms blew through the islands that Valuan ships went to, that Valuan warships patrolled, we had standing orders to render assistance. We chased off Black Pirates, and didn't go looking to expand or to cause trouble. Under his leadership, under Gregorio's? There _was_ honor and virtue, and where it didn't exist, it was scoured out."

Dyne set a hand on the table and drummed his fingers slowly. "I see a great deal of your father in you, prince. Valua is a mirror of the people who lead it. It reflects what they value, and what they live by. Valua itself was never good. But a _True Valuan_ can be just, and noble, and virtuous." He pointed at Enrique. "You have the strength of a king in you, Enrique. Just like my son has the heart of an admiral."

"That's why you founded the Blue Rogues, isn't it?" Enrique realized. "You saw the direction that the empire was headed."

"I could not be true to myself and my values and be a part of it." Dyne smiled. "I could only stand against it. Just as you are now doing. As you are helping my _son_ to do."

"Vyse is more of a leader than I could ever be." Enrique protested. "I did not do this to try and take the crown by force, I promise you."

"I know." Dyne said calmly, easing the flare of tension between them. "You acted with only the best of intentions. You've given the world a chance to stand against oppression." He looked to Vyse, his eyes severe. "Has he taken the oath yet?"

"No, Captain Dyne." Vyse said, his voice thick as he deferred to the authority of the eldest Blue Rogue.

"May I administer it?" Dyne asked, and Enrique drew in a breath. "If you would serve under my son, if you would follow this course, you will do it as a Blue Rogue, Prince Enrique. You will do it as the man that you were destined to be."

Enrique pushed away from the table and stood up slowly, and took a knee on the floor. Dyne stood and went to the far wall, drawing a ceremonial sword that was marred by soot, but still intact. Aika inhaled sharply, Fina pressed her hands to her mouth. Vyse watched with pride.

"Prince Enrique of the Valuan Empire kneels before this body, hereforth to declare himself as a Blue Rogue. Now he sails toward a new horizon, and seeks the blessings of the Moons as he takes the Oath of the Blue Rogues. Are there any here who would speak against him receiving it?"

Not a sound answered him.

Dyne nodded. "Hearing no voice of dissent, let us continue. Who would sponsor this man?"

Vyse stood up. "I, Captain Vyse of the Blue Rogues, sponsor this man."

Aika came up next, her face full of pride and fury. "I, Aika of the Blue Rogues, stand with this man."

And even Fina stood, not knowing the ceremony, but feeling that she had to. She looked to Vyse for consolation, and he smiled and nodded at her in reassurance. "I, Fina of the Silvites, stand with this man."

Dyne nodded, not once breaking his mask of severity. "Then Enrique, Prince of Valua, son of the rightful king Mathias du Valua, speak the Oath of the Blue Rogues, and take your place among us." Only then did he look over to Vyse and give the slightest nod of his head, giving his son permission to speak and assist.

Vyse did so, coming over to stand behind Enrique. "Repeat after me." He whispered. So Enrique did, one vow at a time.

"Blue Rogues leave nobody behind. Blue Rogues never back down from a greater danger. Blue Rogues always help out those in need. Blue Rogues never give up. And Blue Rogues Fly Free."

_**"Blue Rogues Fly Free!"**_ Aika and Vyse shouted, startling both Enrique and even Fina.

Dyne brought his sword down, rested the point of it on both of Enrique's shoulders, and then pulled it back. When Enrique lifted his head up, the prince was beaming through watery eyes, and Dyne himself was smiling.

"Stand, Enrique. And welcome to the Blue Rogues."

He was promptly tackled and hugged half to death by the laughing, giggling, crying trio of Blue Rogues he had rescued from the Grand Fortress.

* * *

The rest of dinner went by with even more freeness and revelry, as Dyne produced a bottle of wine as they finished the meal to toast Enrique's formal admittance into the ranks. Ordinarily, it would be a much more raucous ceremony with the others, but as most of the crew of the _Albatross II_ was still busy continuing construction work, they made do with their smaller numbers, and limited their intake under his mother's sharp eye. When it came to the question of sleeping arrangements, she was quick to act.

"Well Vyse, we've got your bedroom upstairs looking almost like it was before, so you'll be staying there tonight. And Aika, we rebuilt your house, kept the same floor plan. I hope you don't mind, we didn't have a smaller mattress on hand, so we had to give you a larger bed than you had before. We were short on blankets as well, but it's still warm enough that you'll be able to make do with your sheets."

"Where will I be staying, madam?" Enrique asked.

"Oh, I think that Briggs and Martha set up the couch at their place for you, dear. It's probably not what you're used to, being royalty and all, but…"

"It will be fine." Enrique said, smiling and holding up a hand to stop her apology. "We'll be sailing on the _Delphinus _ soon enough. I will have to become accustomed to rough living, and better to start here in the warmth of a good home with good people."

"Watch out, he's a smooth talker." Aika muttered under her breath, and Vyse stifled a laugh as he set his wineglass back on the table.

"We'll set you up on our couch as well, Fina, like we did last time." His mother went on.

"Actually, Mrs. Dyne, if you don't mind, I'll just have Fina stay with me." Aika said brightly. "When we were flying on the _Little Jack_, space was kind of an issue, so we just got used to sharing a bed. Especially since you gave me a bigger one than before, it'd be a shame to let it go to waste."

"Are you sure, dear?" Vyse's mother asked, not quite sold on the idea. Aika wrapped an arm around Fina's midsection and pulled her into a jovial side hug.

"Positive!" She grinned. Vyse kept a straight face, even as he wanted to smirk. There was the _other_ reason that the two girls almost always slept together beyond convenience.

Two reasons. The sex, obviously, but...also, the intimacy. They almost needed each other to sleep peacefully, almost more than he needed them. The voyage across the Southern Ocean had been the start of it, he knew that now after their pillow talks. If his mother suspected...but she didn't. It wasn't how she'd been raised. To his mother Relena, the girls were just 'good friends.'

He wouldn't lie if she asked him directly, Vyse knew, but he wasn't about to go advertising the truth of it either.

"Well, then it's all settled." His mother declared, picking up the last of the dishes and moving them to the sink. "I know you all will probably want to get an early start in the morning back at Alpha Base for the next leg of your voyage, so we'll say good night here. Sleep well, dears!"

Vyse went through the rest of the evening almost on routine. He gave his father another hug, shook Enrique's hand and told him he'd see him in the morning, and was glomped by both Aika and Fina for a group hug that in no way measured up to what any of them actually wanted to do. But...his parent's house, and they hadn't openly declared themselves yet, anyways. All Aika had managed was a knowing smile and a too platonic kiss to his cheek before she hooked her arm through Fina's and the two girls went off into the night, giggling.

He made his way upstairs to his bedroom and fought off his initial impulse of leaping out the window and sneaking over to Aika's. He knew his mother too well; she'd be coming up to say good night. So instead he opened up his window to let in the cool night air, poured himself a drink of water to counteract the wine from dinner, and started reviewing his Sailor's Journal. He needed a new one, and desperately. When they got back to Alpha Base tomorrow afternoon, he'd need to see about procuring one and getting Aika to cast the protective weatherization spells on it to spare it from water damage. Actually, Fina might be able to do the same thing, now that he thought about it.

A knock on the bottom of the ladder that went up to his bedroom caught his attention, and shortly after, his mother climbed up and smiled at him.

"There's my handsome boy."

"_Mom_." Vyse sighed. "I'm a man now, remember? Dad said I was in front of pretty much the entire village?"

"You'll always be my boy, that's how it works when you're a parent." She grinned at him. "Come to think of it, Jessica? She's pregnant now, has one on the way. She'll be able to put her knitting skills to good use."

"How have things been here, mom? Really?" Vyse asked, changing the subject.

"Oh. It's had its ups and downs, but knowing that our husbands are all back and safe has been a relief, even if they spend most of their time away from the island. It was a little touch and go at first, with the Valuan patrols stopping by more frequently to make sure that they hadn't returned, but they gave up after about a month and a half. I suppose you gave them something else to worry about."

"Was Marco good for everyone while we were gone?" Vyse asked, tucking his journal away and yawning.

"Oh, he's a little terror, but no worse than Alan or Jimmy. I think Lyndsi's taken a shine to him."

"Mom, he's _twelve._" Vyse groaned. "And she's ten. Isn't that a little young to be playing matchmaker?"

"I'm not encouraging anything that isn't already bubbling between them, Vyse, you know me." His mother said cheerfully. Vyse turned his back to her before he rolled his eyes. Yes, he knew her. That was the problem.

She sighed, and he tensed up. He knew what was coming next. "Speaking of playing matchmaker...I see that Aika and Fina are getting along better than when you all left before."

"Risking your lives with people tends to do that." He said, turning around slowly. "If we didn't trust each other, we wouldn't have been able to come this far."

"And they're both still very sweet on you." She went on, staring him down with something just shy of disapproval. "Did you ever decide which one you were going to be with?"

"Why would I want to choose between them?" Vyse asked. "They're fine the way they are." Which was true, but it also danced around what she was driving at. "I care about them very much."

"You shouldn't string them along like this, Vyse, it isn't proper. You need to make up your mind, so you can still be friends with whichever one you don't start dating. A woman's heart is a delicate thing. Cause it too much pain, and it will break."

"I know that." Vyse said back to her, smiling as he thought of them, saddened because of the pain Aika had gone through. Was still going through. "And I'm not going to hurt them. Either of them. Okay, mom? It'll be all right. Do you trust me?"

The worry on her face didn't go away, but her disapproval melted. "Yes, I do Vyse. Okay. I've said all I'm going to say tonight." She walked over and kissed his forehead, then stepped back. "I'm so happy you came back to us. Sleep well, son. I love you."

"Night, mom. I love you too." He kept on his placid smile until she went back down the ladder to join his dad for the evening, and then let it drop away as he sighed softly and shook his head. He waited until quiet descended over the house and the lights downstairs had been doused, then snuck silently out the window and shimmied down from the roof. He'd done it often, but it was always to grab Aika and get up to some kind of mischief.

It meant so much more now as he made his way across the village, clinging to the shadows, until he was in front of the house that they had rebuilt for her. Her parent's house, which had become hers when they died. He stopped briefly by the wall outside of her bedroom and traced the surface of it with a hand. The hole she had kept covered with a towel was missing now.

The village wasn't the same anymore. Nothing was. Vyse pressed his head against the side of Aika's rebuilt house and closed his eyes.

Nothing was the same. The village was all new. His father was building a new ship. Nasrad had burned, Drachma was lost to Rhaknam.

Nothing was the same. They had crossed the Southern Ocean. They had freed Ixa'taka. They had gathered two Moon Crystals. They had survived the Grand Fortress, stolen Valua's newest ship. He had fallen in love. Aika, his best friend, was his lover, and so was Fina, the girl who had stumbled into their lives.

Nothing was the same, but Vyse opened his eyes and smiled. Nothing was the same. And he was all right with it.

Vyse stepped around to the front door and knocked gently, waiting under the glow of the silver moon and listening with sharp ears as soft footsteps came close.

The door opened a crack and Fina's head appeared. When she saw it was him, she smiled brightly and pulled the door open the rest of the way, stepping back inside. She hadn't dressed for bed yet, and her Silvite dress with the cutout over her cleavage glowed faintly in the moonlight. Vyse stepped inside and closed the door behind him, then pulled Fina in close and kissed her deeply.

"Hey, lovely." He smiled after they pulled apart, then looked around until he spied Aika sitting on the edge of her bed in a loose nightdress, brushing out her long red hair. "How are my two favorite women doing?"

"She's…" Fina started softly, glancing back in hesitation. When Vyse looked at her, he realized why Fina was concerned. Aika was staring off into space and running on muscle memory alone. Even in the dim light of the house from the candles, she was too quiet and withdrawn.

Vyse bit his lip. She was trapped in her thoughts again. She was thinking of _Vigoro_.

"Let me talk to her." Vyse told Fina, stroking her cheek once before walking to the exposed bedroom. Everything in Aika's house was an open floor plan, with no walls and only a few bracing pillars to keep the roof up.

As soon as Vyse drew near, Aika noticed his approach and reacted, flinching away and letting out a small yelp. She was still breathing hard when Vyse stopped moving and watched her eyes slowly lose that wildness, slowly begin to recognize him again.

"Vyse." The redhead whispered. "I…"

"You'll have to stop telling me that you're sorry one of these days, Aika." Vyse told her quietly.

"I'm fine. Everything's fine, I'm just…"

Vyse snapped his arm forward and closed his hand around her forearm, and she froze with a gurgle of terror. He let go immediately and shook his head. "You still feel him, don't you?"

Aika's brown eyes stared at him, and it was several seconds before the girl made a muffled whimper and managed the smallest nod. Vyse bowed his head.

"It's not you." Aika told him weakly. "I swear it isn't, Vyse. But…"

Fina came over and joined them, pensive and caring. "But whenever he walks towards you, whenever he reaches out for you, you flinch away from him. From _Vyse_. Because for that first moment, you don't see him for who he is. You see Vigoro."

"I'm fine. I'm getting over it." Aika protested. "I just...I need…"

"What _do_ you need?" Vyse asked her gently, trying not to sound hurt, and knowing by how she whimpered that he'd failed at it. "Aika, we love you. We want to help you."

"I know." She rubbed at her eyes with the back of her fingers. "I know you do. I know that you don't think I'm _tainted_ or worthless, or anything like that. I'm trying. You're right. I do see him. I see him, and I try to tell myself that I'm fine, that he isn't here, that it's over with. But then you...And I see _him_, and I panic." She finally broke down at that, and sobbed. "I don't know what to do. I'm sick of it. I want things to go back to the way they were before we were captured."

Fina sat down beside Aika, and the other girl fell into her arms with great gulping gasps. The Silvite ran a hand down her back, humming softly.

And Vyse stood, aching to touch her, to love her, to be with her and to heal her. "Tell me what you need." He got out. "Whatever you need. If you need me to go, I'll go. If you need me to stay, I'll stay. I want to help you stop hurting. I want you to smile again. I want you to not be afraid of me."

Aika drew in one shuddering breath after another, and after half a minute, calmed herself down enough to kiss Fina's lips hard enough to bruise them. And then she looked up, tears still in her eyes at him, and his breath caught.

"Make me forget him." Aika begged Vyse.

It took both him and Fina working together over two solid hours to make it happen, but they did finally exorcise the last traces of Vigoro from her body and her mind. And when they slept afterwards, soaked in sweat and fluids on stained and tousled sheets, Vyse and Fina curled around their lover and she didn't panic.

She slept peacefully with a smile on her face.

* * *

_Aika's House, Pirate Isle_

_115 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Early Morning_

Relena, wife of Dyne and mother of Vyse, had long been a hard worker. She was used to rising before the sun did to get started on breakfast, and the return of her son and his friends had been a blessing that left her buzzing with energy. Eager to give the two girls a proper housewarming, she prepared a meal of savory meats, fresh biscuits, and tantalizing fruit for Aika and Fina to enjoy after they woke up. Expecting that Vyse would sleep in, as he hadn't made a sound since last night, she hiked up her skirt and hauled the covered tray of food across the village to Aika's place.

There were no locks on the doors, they were all Blue Rogues and the families and friends of Blue Rogues, after all. A polite knock was all any of them needed, but Relena held off in case the girls were still sleeping. She braced the tray against her hip with one hand and turned the knob on the door, and it swung into the house silently.

Aika's father had been a Nasrian merchant before he settled down and married the girl's mother, a spitfire that Relena had known as a girl and who had signed on with Dyne once the Blue Rogues began operating in earnest. Their house had been a reflection of his culture's design, but with the homey furnishings and decor of Mid-Ocean, and the biggest thing about Nasrian homes was a focus on open spaces with no walls. A family lived openly.

Relena didn't think anything of it as she meandered into the kitchen and took note of the candle stubs that had burned to their ends and the damp, musty smell in the air; apparently, the girls hadn't bothered to blow them out before they went to sleep. She made a silent huff as she pulled out a fresh candle and replaced the stub on one of the candlesticks, then quickly lit it with a spark of red magic off of a fingersnap. The wick flared to life, and Relena got to work unloading the platters of food from the serving tray onto the counter in the dim candlelight. Sunrise would still be another half-hour, if her sense of timing was correct.

The open kitchen filled with the smells of delicious, warm food as she finished setting out the platters and removed their covers. Curiously, Aika hadn't yet stirred, and Relena heard nothing from over by the recessed bedroom space. Deciding that Aika might prefer to enjoy the food while it was still warm, she picked up her single candlestick and made her way across the house with silent footfalls.

As she neared the bed, she found Fina's dress thrown almost haphazardly onto the floor ten feet away, next to Aika's boots and skirt. She rolled her eyes at the sight and picked up the garment, carefully folding it up and laying it on the end table by the couch. Clearly, the girls had been too tired last night to care about laying out their garments for the next day. Relena grabbed her candlestick and turned back for the bed, preparing herself to see them both passed out and dead to the world.

She froze at a distance of three feet from the oversized mattress, and felt her voice catch in her throat when her heart leapt up into it. She had expected to see the two sleeping girls there. And they were there.

But so was her son. All _three_ of them were nestled in the bed, and…

She brought her free hand up to her mouth and covered it as her eyes flickered from one sight to the next, and her nose finally placed the musty smell she'd attributed to candle smoke and closed windows.

Oh, _Moons_, what had her son done? Which was a stupid question, she knew, but she wailed it in her mind regardless as she stared at him, naked as they were and only partially covered by a single bedsheet that seemed to have been pulled up and over more as afterthought than with full intent.

Both of them. By the Moons, he had slept with _both_ of them. The stink of sex and the traces of dried fluids over their bodies was unmistakable. Vyse was spooned up behind Aika, one leg and cheek uncovered, and she knew if she pulled the sheet away, she would see her son's…

_Her son's…_

Somehow, she kept from making a noise, and shook wildly instead in fear. What if he had gotten them pregnant?! How long had this been going on, this unnatural and deviant..._thing_ between the three of them? What would people think if they learned of them? What if people already knew? What would his father…

But then, in the dim glow of the candlelight, Fina made a protesting murmur where she was lying on her side, faced towards Aika, and rolled towards the other girl. As Relena watched and swallowed her heart back down, Fina's hand and arm pushed the bedsheet away to reveal Aika's naked torso, and the wild tangles of dried, once-sweaty red hair that stuck to her shoulders and ended just short of her breasts.

The Silvite girl's hand reached between them, and her palm came to rest against Aika's left breast. Fina let out a soft sigh and her fingers curled slightly around it, and even in her sleep, Relena could see that Aika smiled and relaxed into her touch with a warm hum.

And they kept on sleeping. It served as a splash of cold water on all of Relena's wild, panicked thoughts, and though she felt ashamed for continuing to stare, the mother forced herself to do so. Because nothing about this made sense to her, but it clearly didn't bother either of the girls. Nor her son.

She stood there as still as a statue and watched, and tried to understand.

Relena didn't know how many minutes she stood there, hovering over the children (_But they weren't children, not anymore, were they?_) and watching them sleep. She watched them as Vyse stayed nestled behind Aika, and wondered how long it had taken them to fall into each other's arms. She could tell by the outline of their bodies beneath the sheet that both Fina and Vyse had each reached for Aika's hip, as if to anchor themselves to the young woman. She watched as Aika kept her head nestled onto Vyse's arm, trapping it and using it as an extension of her pillow as she leaned back into him. By the curve of their legs, Relena could see that Fina had hooked one leg over and around Vyse's, further bringing them together. She saw so many love bites and soft bruises on their necks, on Aika's shoulders, on...on Aika's…

But there was such a sense of _peace_ around the three of them, that when she finally could pull herself back, Relena found herself swallowing almost every panicked scream and shout. She cried silently and walked back to the kitchen, and stared at the food she had made for the girls (_Her son's girls_) and was just lost.

She started a kettle for tea more out of habit, and toiled silently until the water was hot enough. With a teabag steeping in a mug, Relena sat down at the kitchen table, intentionally keeping her back to the bedroom, and drank in silence as the morning began to dawn.

Relena could tell when they were awake. Aika was never one to be quiet, and that apparently included when she was caught out. _"Wuh-oh__**shit**__!"_ That stirred her bedmates up as well, although Aika quickly shushed them, and there might have been some fevered gesturing because she heard the grunt of her son's voice as he rolled over, and kept rolling over until he apparently rolled out of bed and hit the floor with a loud thump. _"Vyse! Shit, hang on!"_

"Good morning, dears." Relena said, tasting the unnatural tang in her voice. It felt like she was speaking from outside of her body. She certainly felt like she was outside of it, anyways.

Behind her came the sounds of harried shuffling as clothes were grabbed and hastily donned. "Morning, Mrs. Dyne! We'll...we'll be right there!" Aika called back to her, a touch louder than necessary.

Relena hadn't even _looked_ at the girl yet and Aika was terrified. Or maybe the three of them had just thought they'd have more time before they would have to explain it all. Still. No time like the present.

Aika was the first to appear, wearing a terrycloth bathrobe that Relena had picked up from one of the merchants by chance and left as a housewarming gift. Her face was flushed and her hair was still wild and scattered, although she was making an effort to tie it all back into a less elaborate ponytail behind her head. Relena could tell, based on the revealed skin of a shoulder by her rapid movements, that the girl wasn't wearing anything underneath it as she sat down across from her. "Erm..aheh…" Aika tried to start out, looking panicked.

Relena just swallowed another sip of her tea and then gestured to the food between them. "I brought you girls breakfast. Thought you might be hungry."

"It smells great, Missus D. I'm _starving!_" Aika kept up her perky approach, grabbing for a piece of fruit.

"I would imagine you would be, after last night." Relena said pointedly, feeling a little satisfaction when the young Blue Rogue's hand fumbled for half a second.

"Missus Dyne…"

Relena held up her free hand, silencing Aika's first fumbled explanation. "Eat something first. We'll talk when your...when the _other two_ are done getting dressed." She was amazed how calm she sounded then, and Aika meekly started in on breakfast. A minute later, Fina and Vyse walked over, Vyse in his usual uniform and Fina in her silvery dress with the cutout along the top of her bosom. They all ate silently for a time, and Relena poured out cups of tea as everyone waited for someone else to break the ice. In the end, it was her son who finally bit the bullet and did so.

"So. You probably have questions, mom."

She hummed at that, and looked between the two girls. "How long?" She inquired.

Vyse used the last of his second biscuit to sop up some dribbles of gravy, looking over to Aika sitting in the middle between himself and Aika. "If you mean how long have we...been an us…" he implied carefully, "About a week. Since Daccat's Island."

Relena felt herself nodding, and she stared down into her tea mug and sized it out. In reviewing the details, it seemed so obvious. The way Vyse had been so somber as he accounted for his time marooned on that island, and how he'd glowed about finding the treasure and Aika and Fina. Only now she realized that he hadn't been smiling because he had discovered the secret of Daccat's lost wealth, but had been reunited with them. It was so obvious in hindsight. Daccat had never really cared about wealth, if that letter and the single coin he left in his box was true. He had cared about the people in his life.

"Fina and I figured out our own feelings for each other when we were working in Nasrad to get the money together for a ship." Aika added calmly, and Fina smiled gently and reached for her hand. As soon as her fingers touched the back of Aika's hand, Aika reversed her wrist, and their fingers interlaced. "I was out of my mind worried about Vyse, heartsick and...and she saved me."

"You saved me first." Fina corrected her, looking past her to Vyse with a sparkle in her eye. A sparkle that Relena knew all too well, because it was the same one she felt every time she caught Dyne alone in a tender moment and the Blue Rogue faded long enough to just let him be the man she'd fallen in love with. "You both did."

That they both loved her son made some sense, with time. But Relena still hesitated when she looked between the girls. They loved each other? A woman could love another woman?

But it had to be love. No lust or sexual attraction could let them fake the easy intimacy, the _calm belonging_ that they radiated, the way that they leaned into each other.

And Vyse...Vyse just chuckled and stretched his arm out, wrapping it around both of them and pulling them in closer until Aika was squashed between Fina and Vyse. She didn't seem the least bit aggravated about it.

"So…" Relena gestured between them. "It's not that Vyse just decided he wanted to sleep with the both of you and you went along with it?"

Her son frowned at that. So did Aika. Fina's smile just thinned a little, and the Silvite hummed, electing to speak up and quelling the impulses of the other two with a look. "It isn't. Look, Mrs…"

"You're sleeping with my son." Relena stopped her cold. "I think you can use my name now."

"...Relena." Fina amended, and pressed on. "I love Vyse. I love Aika. Aika loves Vyse, and she loves me. And Vyse loves the both of us. I know it probably sounds odd to you, but it works for us. And it wasn't so unusual, in the world before the Rains of Destruction. I read about it when I was a girl."

"Really?" Aika inquired, lifting an eyebrow humorously. "Was it _educational_ or _entertainment_?" And there, Fina finally blushed and looked away as Aika giggled. "Wow. Princess likes to read romance novels, who'da thought it?"

"The _point being_ Relena…" Fina huffed, recovering her composure. "It works for us."

"This isn't what I thought Vyse would do when I told him not to string you girls along." The older woman breathed, taking another sip of her tea. "I thought he would choose one of you, let the other down easy and stay friends with them."

"It would have broken him, mom." Aika snapped. "It _did_ break him."

"Aika, she doesn't need to hear…" Vyse started carefully, but Aika snapped her head around and glared at him.

"She _does_ need to hear this, Vyse. Let me talk, okay?"

Vyse shut his eyes and nodded. Aika drummed her fingers on the table, fuming, and Relena worriedly scooted back a few inches. It wasn't enough.

"After we crossed the Southern Ocean? After we reached Ixa'taka, that was when it hit us. How dangerous what we were doing really was. We were planning on going into the Moonstone Mines, and the king had put us up for the night. We were going to be walking into a trap, more than likely. I…" The redhead chewed on her lip, and Fina squeezed her hand again.

Relena just watched.

"I offered myself to him. Kissed Vyse flat out and made it clear I wanted him to ravish me. And he said no. I lost my mind that night, even screamed at Fina. Because Vyse said that being with me wouldn't be fair. To _her_."

"I couldn't choose." Vyse added softly. "Mom, I didn't mean for it to happen, but...I fell in love with the both of them. I tried to picture my life with only one of them in it, and I knew it wouldn't work."

"So there we are, mucking around in Ixa'taka, fighting the Valuans, freeing the Ixa'takans, being big damn heroes and somehow surviving it all, and in my head, I decide, okay fine, Vyse doesn't love me like that. That he loves Fina." Aika went on, and it all poured out of her like a river of pain. "So after we leave Ixa'taka, we're sailing through the North Ocean, and I try to put space between me and them. And when Vyse calls me on it, I blew up on him, on Fina, and just let it all out in the open. That I wanted him to be happy, and if that meant he was going to be with Fina, fine, but I couldn't stand to sit around and watch the man I loved be with someone else and not with me."

"And that's when I finally came clean." Vyse confessed. "To both of them. That I loved the _both_ of them, that I couldn't choose between them because it wouldn't be fair to _either_ of them. I knew how they were looking at me. I'd known for weeks what they both felt for me, because it was mutual. But I couldn't...I couldn't _do that_ to them. They deserved better."

"And then we found Rhaknam, and we lost the _Little Jack_ and Drachma, and...we lost each other." Fina concluded. "If I hadn't had Fina there, I don't know how I would have coped. I lost the man I loved. But I still had her." The Silvite laughed sadly. "I understood how Vyse felt perfectly. And when I came out to Aika? Told her that there was a way forward for all of us to be happy? For the first time in weeks, there was hope in my heart, and she _smiled_ again."

"I thought they would both hate me." Vyse said, looking at his women with tears in his eyes. "To find out that they both still loved me, that it _was okay_ for me to love the two of them, because they loved each other and three people could love each other and it wasn't wrong? I held them tight and cried and thanked the Moons." And he did so again, with the three of them huddling in close and pressing their foreheads together.

Relena swallowed hard, tears tracking down her face, and not for the first time that morning, found herself looking at something beautiful she barely understood. But, the mother realized, she didn't have to. They did. That was enough.

"Mom, are you okay?" Vyse asked her.

"No." She said, sobbing once before it melted into a weak laugh. "I don't know what I'm feeling. I'm worried for you all, and I'm happy for you all, and I don't know if this will last or if it will all come crashing down around you."

"We talk about it. There are no secrets between us." Fina explained. "There's no guidebook for love, Relena. I looked. I never found one. All you can do is trust each other, be there for each other, love each other. And always talk about how you're feeling."

"Okay." Relena finally dabbed at her eyes. "Okay. If this is what the three of you want, if this...makes you happy...I won't stand in the way of it. I don't know if the rest of the world will understand it though, or if they'll approve of it."

"They don't have to." Vyse cut in determinedly. "It's none of their business."

Relena stood up on shaky legs. "Can...Can I hug all of you?"

They didn't use their words to answer her. They all stood up, walked around the table, and crowded into her with the warmest group hug Relena had ever had in her life. She cried a little more, but it didn't have the same sting as before. The girls both cried a little as well.

"Can I call you mom now, like Aika did?" Fina asked softly. "I never knew my parents, and...I just…"

Relena hugged the blond-haired girl even tighter, pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Yes, Fina. You can call me your mother now." The Silvite looked ready to bawl all over again, but Aika headed her off.

"Look on the bright side, Missus D. You get twice the grandchildren now."

The laughter of the women filled the small home, and they laughed all the more when Vyse gaped dazedly. Relena still worried about them as they had so much left to do in the ongoing struggle against Valua, but she quietly, cheerfully, threw out the last of her fears about _them_.

They had figured themselves out and they were happy.

A mother could ask for no more than that.

* * *

There wasn't much of a ceremony when the three of them rejoined Marco and Enrique at the mooring dock. They were, after all, flying back to Alpha Base now that they'd had some much needed rest and picked up a few supplies.

Vyse's mother still hugged the daylights out of all of them, even Enrique who managed a smile and a conciliatory pat on her back, and one for Marco that came with a wet kiss on the boy's cheek that left him squirming and rubbing at his face.

"You stay in touch, you hear me?" She told her son sternly, and he nodded. "Prince Enrique, it was lovely to meet you. Do try and keep an eye on my son and his...his friends." She amended, and Vyse smiled at her caginess. He had no doubt she would tell his father the truth of their complicated relationship in time, but for now, she was more than willing to preserve the secret between him, Aika, and Fina.

"I shall do my very best, madam, to safeguard the life of your son and his comrades." Prince Enrique promised solemnly. "I have given my oath as a Blue Rogue. I will protect my captain. And his crew." To which the prince doffed his beret and then plopped it down on Marco's tangled head of red hair.

"Hey! Ease off there, cake eater!" Marco whined, shoving the beret back into Enrique's chest and then mussing his hair back into place again. "Geez, can we go already? We've got a whole world to see!"

"Right you are, Sailor Marco." Vyse said with mock seriousness. The effect was ruined when the island's trouble trio came racing towards them, Pow in tow as always. Vyse blinked as Marco took one look at sweet little Lyndsi and went white as a sheet, scrambling on board Dyne's skiff.

"I'm not here!" Marco pleaded in a hissing whisper, leaving Vyse confused for the ten seconds it took the kids screaming Vyse's name to reach them.

"Vyse! Vyse! Are you really leaving?" Jimmy asked worriedly. Vyse nodded with a grin.

"Uh huh. The skies are calling my name again. We've got a world to save, after all."

"I wish we could come with you." Alan said forlornly. He whistled, and Pow bounded up to his side. "But we talked it over, and we thought that since we couldn't come with you, the least we could do was have you take Pow for the voyage. I mean, he's taken a real shine to Marco, after all. I'd hate to see them get broken up."

Vyse chuckled, looking over to the huskra that was the island's mascot. "Well, Pow?" He asked the domesticated canine. "What do you say? You want to come with us, boy?"

"Pow! Pow!" The dog barked, jumping around a little. Vyse laughed and rubbed at the dog's ears affectionately.

"All right then. Welcome aboard, Pow." Without waiting for a whistle, the huskra ran for the skiff and jumped on board, and Enrique smiled and followed the animal.

Lyndsi, however, puffed out her cheeks and stomped her shoe into the ground. "Vyse, where's Marco?"

"Oh, I think he's already aboard, but he's belowdecks taking care of something." Vyse answered carefully.

"Liar." Aika mumbled softly, and Vyse ignored her.

Lyndsi stomped her foot again. "Ooh, that Marco!" She huffed. "I wanted to give him something!"

"If you want, Lyndsi, you could give it to me." Vyse offered. "I'll make sure he gets it."

Lyndsi blinked hopefully. "You promise, Vyse?"

"Of course." He smiled as he knelt down to her height. "I'm a Blue Rogue. I keep my promises." Then he held out a hand, expecting to get a cookie or a snack or a toy, or even a memento.

He wasn't prepared for Lyndsi to push his hand out of the way, skip in close, and give him a wet smooch on his cheek. When she pulled back, the blond-haired girl was giggling and blushing like mad, and pressed a hand to her mouth.

"There." She said, and then darted away with a giggling squeal. Vyse blinked as he stood back up and looked over to Aika and Fina, who were trying to restrain their laughter, and struggling at it.

"Oh, dear." His mother said with a long-suffering sigh. "That boy is in _trouble_."

"Uh huh." Vyse muttered, rolling his eyes. "And I made a promise. Which means _I'm_ in trouble."

"Oh, no, Vyse. Not with us." Aika crooned, clasping her hands together and making moon-eyes at him. "You have to give that to Marco now. It's so _pwecious_."

"Well, you'd best not keep him waiting then." His mother said brightly, giving them another wave. "Or your father. Moons know he probably has a hundred different things he needs to keep working on back at his secret base."

"We're going to need all the help we can get if this mess keeps spiraling out of control." Vyse agreed, and hugged her one last time. "I love you, mom. We'll see you soon."

With Dyne at the helm of the skiff, they were soon puttering away from Pirate Isle and heading for the wilderness tucked away to the northwest. Only then did Marco finally emerge from belowdecks, and Vyse wasted no time in giving him Lyndsi's 'present', although he transferred the kiss to his palm first before rubing the boy's face with it. Marco squawked and jumped away, rubbing at his cheek. "Why did you do that?!" He shouted.

"Because I made a promise." Vyse said. "Word to the wise, kid. Don't make promises lightly. You always have to keep them."

Aika wasn't about to waste the opportunity, leaning in and grinning at the youngest member of their crew. "So. Lyndsi likes you, hmm? What did you do to make _that_ happen?"

"I don't know!" Marco insisted, still rubbing at his face. "Girls are just weird! All I did was play with her and the other kids some, and talk about Valua, and then she decided to start following me around everywhere and she woulda pulled her hair out when it got caught if I hadn't helped her get loose."

Aika and Fina looked at one another as some unknowable thought passed between them, and then Aika just beamed even wider. "I think she's sweet on you, Marco."

"No way! Girls are gross! And Lyndsi is...she…" Marco stammered, blushing brightly. "She confuses me!"

As Aika and Fina broke into open laughter and Enrique managed to hold himself to a more dignified smirk, Vyse sighed and patted the boy on the shoulder. "That's how it starts, Marco."

"That's how _what_ starts?" The boy demanded suspiciously. Vyse said nothing, and Marco nudged him. "Vyse! That's how _what_ starts?"

"Why don't you go check on Pow for me?" Vyse changed the subject. "We'll have his feeding and cleaning be a part of your responsibilities from now on." Marco grumbled, but headed off to see to the dog as he was ordered.

"You're going to have your hands full with that one, I think." Dyne mused.

"Believe me, I know it." Vyse agreed. "But he's a good kid, Captain Dyne. He'll be a good Blue Rogue."

"I trust you, son." Dyne said, and his heart swelled at his father's words of confidence. "So. Once we get to Alpha Base, the _Delphinus_ should be ready to fly. I had my crew load up as much moonstone fuel and repair kits and foodstores as we could spare. As a personal favor to you, and also because purple is an eyesore of a color, I've given you all of the blue ship's paint we had on hand. It'll manage one good coat, I think. But to fully stock and provision that ship is not going to be easy. My advice would be to head for Sailor's Isle next, see about getting the rest of your provisions...and ammunition...there."

"That's a logical next step." Vyse agreed.

Dyne set the ship to autopilot, keeping it on the same bearing and at the same altitude, then turned to address the four of them more fully. "What's your plan after that, Captain Vyse?"

"Keep finding the Moon Crystals before Valua does, so Fina can take them back to her people and hide them away." Vyse said, looking to his blonde lover. "So where are we going next, Fina?"

"With the three remaining?" Fina considered it. "I think we should fly to the lands under the Blue Moon. They're located to the east of Nasr, but getting there might be problematic. I think there was an impassable sky rift that separates the lands?"

"The Dark Rift." Prince Enrique cut in, and he seemed pensive and worried. "I remember it. Supposedly, there is a land to the east at the edge of the world called Yafutoma. There were only ever scattered references to it in the royal library, and it was treated as myth, a fairy tale concocted by the air pirate king Daccat to bolster his reputation, as nobody ever managed to find it again. In fact, there was an expedition that set out when I was born that tried to get through the Dark Rift to reach the skies on the other side. It failed horribly." Enrique rubbed at his arm. "I am sorry I don't have better news for you, Vyse."

"You think that's bad news?" Vyse said, grinning. "Enrique, we need to work on your sense of adventure! We've got the best ship ever made. We've got a mission sent from the Moons to save the world, and we're Blue Rogues. This is a chance to do what nobody else has ever done, go where nobody else ever has!"

"But we still need a crew, Vyse." Aika argued. "We can't fly, maintain, and fight in the Delphinus alone!"

"Hm. Then we're going to have to pick them up along the way." Vyse conceded, rubbing at his chin. He looked over to Enrique. "Where did you say the Dark Rift was?"

"South of Maramba, around the cape and through the World's End sky rift just east of the start of the Southern Ocean." Enrique recited. "Supposedly, the survivors of that failed expedition settled there on the southern end of the continent in sight of the Dark Rift's singular aperture. Their town is called Esparanza."

Vyse hummed to himself, then drew out a rough map of the world as they knew it. "I think I've got an idea of where to fly. It'll be a little roundabout, but if I'm right, and if I know people…we should be able to find our crew along the way. Or most of one, anyways." And with the girls and Enrique watching, he laid out their circuitous route; Sailor's Isle to Nasrad. Nasrad to Crescent Island, where Brabham and Izmael would be waiting for them. Through the frontier to Valua's back door and the northern wastes, cutting across to the North Ocean and then flying south to Ixa'taka…and from there, across the Southern Ocean right to Maramba's doorstep for a resupply before sailing for Esparanza. And the Dark Rift.

"This...could work." Enrique agreed on reflection, and with increasing enthusiasm. "That is actually a fairly impressive bit of maneuvering. I do not see the Admiralty being able to deduce your motives with any great speed or foresight."

"Well. I do love to keep the Valuans guessing." Vyse grinned. "Aika? Fina? How does that sound to you?"

The girls shared another look, and then after Aika nudged her, it was Fina who nodded.

"We are with you, captain. To the end of the world and beyond."

Vyse could hear the words, and the smile underneath. _You carry our hearts, love. Where else would we but by your side?_ He looked at Aika, and in her impish grin, he saw the same courage, trust, and mutual adoration.

He was lost without them, and with them, he would never be lost again. "Then we have our heading." He declared, slapping Enrique hard on the back. "Let's change the world."


	22. A Flag Worth Flying For

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Twenty-Two: A Flag Worth Flying For**

* * *

Prince Enrique du Valua had grown up without a father. When he had been four years old, he had sat in the royal cathedral while his mother sobbed, stared at his father sleeping in an open wooden box, and wondered why he wouldn't wake up. Then he'd started seeing his mother less and less, and 'Uncle Gregorio' took him under his wing. He received a proper and formal education, but he never went anywhere after his father's funeral. His mother refused to allow it.

Gregorio taught him about honor and swordsmanship and true nobility, the qualities of a 'True Valuan'. Enrique took to them like a duck to water. He had been given power, and that power carried the burden of leadership, of seeking the best for ones' people. Yet there were times that Gregorio's lessons...chafed. It took him years, but when Enrique was eleven and went to see his first execution in the gladiator's arena of a group of smugglers who begged for mercy and were afforded only a sharper axe, something Gregorio had said to him finally sank in.

_"Valua is not what it once was, my prince. But when you come of age, you might bring it back."_ The old admiral had been his father's closest friend within the military and once favored for the posting of Lord Admiral before the king's passing and Galcian's rise to prominence. He had smiled when he'd said that, but it had been a smile that never quite reached his eyes. After that gruesome sight in the arena, Enrique realized what Uncle Gregorio had meant.

The Valua that he lived in, the Valua that declared itself an empire instead of a kingdom and blackened the skies from factories and forges that turned the countryside into barren stretches of land and open sores, had not been the Valua his father had died protecting. The Valua that he lived in was ruled by a queen who now called herself an empress and a hard-hearted Lord Admiral that almost never smiled.

He had tried to change the Empire's policy from within for years, and had always been rebuked. At the age of 25, he had given up suffering in silence, and he had given up on trying to change his mother's mind. She was too hard-hearted. Too like Galcian. Too swept up in the misguided belief that Valua deserved to rule the world.

The continuing reports of the resistance of the Blue Rogues, one named Vyse in particular, came as a balm to him. Beginning with the interruption of the execution of a shipful of other Blue Rogues, Vyse had within the span of a day also recovered the Silvite girl captured by the Armada and then finally escaped the Grand Fortress, blowing past a blockading frigate at the gates and scraping through _while the walls were closing_.

From there came the report that he had defeated Admiral Belleza, survived the awakening of a terrifying monster called a Gigas, and claimed one of the precious Moon Crystals that his mother and the admiralty sought after. Her last notice was that they had taken her ship's engine in totality and planned to sail across the Southern Ocean to reach the lands of Ixa'taka. When they didn't appear there in a month's time, the admiralty had considered the Blue Rogue lost to the abyss, a victim of hubris for trying to cross the uncrossable span. Enrique held out a hope that they didn't. And sure enough, days after the Valuan forces in Ixa'taka believed Vyse the Blue Rogue lost at sea, he reappeared, bringing mayhem and chaos and a _prison break_ in his wake. And he outfought Admiral De Loco in the process, and humiliated Alfonso a second time.

Then the Gigas of Ixa'taka rampaged and the Armada fled, and Vyse and his red-haired companion and the Silvite girl and the crusty old arcwhale hunter who now flew with them somehow emerged victorious again. After-action reports hadn't confirmed it, but they had projected with reasonable certainty that the Blue Rogue now held two of the precious Moon Crystals.

The next report about Vyse said that the _Little Jack_ had been badly damaged in the middle of a fracas over Valuan territory between the 6th Fleet, Rhaknam, and the _Little Jack_. Two lifeboats had been launched, but lost in the storm, and soon after, Rhaknam also disappeared, dragging the burning wreck of the _Little Jack_ behind it. This time, military intelligence wasn't as quick to write off the Blue Rogue, but by then, other cogs had been moving.

The news of the burning of Nasrad had horrified Enrique, and that had come with the news that Vyse and his two female crewmembers had been captured as well, with no sign of Drachma or the old man's ship. The Red and Green Moon Crystals had been recovered, Vyse and his companions minus the Silvite were locked in the Grand Fortress prison, and the end was in sight.

It was Enrique's last chance to sway policy. He pleaded for a gentler hand. He evoked the memory of a father he only knew by secondhand accounts. His mother had snapped at him, dismissed him, wild in her rage.

Enrique had done all he could as the Crown Prince of Valua, and it had amounted to nothing. But he knew of a ship down at the docks, a mighty battleship with the most powerful weapon the Armada had ever produced. A ship meant for him, to be wielded in the conquering of the world.

_Valua is not what it once was_, the words of Admiral Gregorio burned in his heart. No, Enrique knew that full well. But in Vyse, in the achievements and methods of an air pirate who seemed to operate by his own code, he saw a way forward. He saw the hope for the world.

It should have been a terrible, painful, difficult thing to betray his people, assist in a breakout, and wage war against the empire's military machine.

It had been painless, and terrifyingly easy. Vyse had told him flat out that he would be no prisoner aboard the _Delphinus_. He would fly with them as a Blue Rogue, and a friend. Nothing less would do.

Then he had met Dyne of the Blue Storm, the first Blue Rogue. To meet the first Valuan officer who had turned away and fought against the wrongful actions of the nascent Empire had been an experience that Enrique had never thought he'd have. In Vyse's father, he saw everything that made Gregorio smile sadly when his name was mentioned. When Dyne had administered the Oath of the Blue Rogues, Enrique's heart nearly burst from the joy and pride that stemmed from it.

Honor burned bright in the Blue Rogues, the honor that Valua had lost and needed to regain.

Enrique du Valua was a self-exiled Prince, a Blue Rogue, and a part of Vyse The Bold's crew. He at last felt proud of what he was doing. And this, as Vyse had fondly told him with a hand on his shoulder, was only the beginning.

* * *

_The Delphinus, Engine Compartment_

_Enroute to Sailor's Isle_

_117 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

There was one major problem to Enrique's otherwise successful wild plan of stopping his mother and Galcian's mad ambitions; he had gotten violently airsick once the Delphinus cleared the Grand Fortress's gate. A lifetime spent essentially trapped within the palace and on solid ground had given him no real sea legs to speak of. The nausea had been slightly better when he'd been at the helm of the great ship (because Vyse had insisted on teaching him at least the basics of maneuvering and navigation so that they could keep going even when Vyse had to sleep), but it was otherwise consistent. What medications the Blue Rogues had been able to provide only kept him from losing his lunch all the time, but the sense of nausea and dizziness persisted.

Vyse was up at the helm again as the massive ship kept flying for Sailor's Isle, and the supplies they so desperately needed. They wouldn't be able to stay for long; it was close enough to the Valuan border that news of their presence would quickly get to the Armada through their network of spies. With Marco cleaning the corridors of the crew cabins and doing his best to keep the Huskra called Pow from making any further messes, Enrique had volunteered to see to the preparation and delivery of breakfast. Thankfully, the rations provided to them by Captain Dyne were of the sort that didn't have a scent to them; the smell of usual greasy breakfast fare would have set him off again.

Aika was right where Vyse had said she would be, and where Enrique would have gone to look in the first place even without his captain's advice. The fiery redhead had donned a thicker layer of protective gear as she lingered in the complicated web of pipes and power conduits in the forward-most section of the engine compartment.

"Miss Aika?" Enrique said carefully, and then with additional volume once he saw that she hadn't heard him the first time. It took him tapping on a length of piping gently with a nearby screwdriver to get her attention, and she whirled around on him, her head and torso covered by thick leather and a steel helmet with a transparent visor.

Aika removed the helmet and stepped away from the assembly, then walked over in his direction with a faint smile. "Morning, Enrique. Breakfast run?"

"Breakfast run." He confirmed, digging into the satchel bouncing off of his waist. "I hope you don't mind, ration bars, jerky, and a little bit of fresh fruit is all we have."

"That'll do." She thanked him, and took the meager fare off of his hands. He followed it up by hoisting a jug, and she reached for her canteen. "How's Vyse doing today?"

"Fine, when I checked in on him. I think he's eager to make port and see about picking up some proper supplies." Enrique said. Aika set breakfast aside just long enough to remove her leather apron and the thick gloves that ran up to her elbows before diving into her meal. "Have you seen Miss Fina? I have her meal as well."

"Ah, I think she's still buried a little farther up and working on the Moonstone Cannon. I was planning on heading there to check up on her in a little bit myself, I could take it to her."

"I can do it, it's no problem." Enrique insisted. Aika just smirked at him as she chewed down another bite of ration bar.

"I'd believe that more if you didn't look so peaked." She hummed after swallowing it down. "There's medicines that will help with the symptoms we should be able to find on Sailor's Isle. I'll try and remember, but be sure to remind me when we get there in case I forget."

"I think that you have larger concerns than my difficulties with airsickness, Miss Aika." He smiled at her. "The number of parts I've heard you talking about before positively boggles the mind."

"This ship has _four_ propellor shafts powered by reciprocating engines, not including the maneuvering spinners." Aika sighed. "The operating manual says that the system runs up to 6000 Lunnabars when we push this ship all-out; it's a _beast_, Enrique. There's some Grade-A1 piping and joints on board, but we're going to need more. Most Valuan warships only use Grade-A2, with Grade-A1 earmarked for flagships."

Enrique raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

"Spend enough time raiding Valuan warships, you pick up a few things." Aika smirked.

"I wouldn't worry about that too much." Enrique reassured her. "Apparently, Admiral de Loco is in the habit of outsourcing Valuan materials to the black market to fund his 'research.' It is a problem that Uncle Gregorio would routinely complain about." Complaining for Gregorio meant that others would be frothing at the mouth about it, Enrique knew. Still, for once, de Loco's urge to gain illicit additional funding would work in their favor. "If you have 'connections' on Sailor's Isle, you should be able to procure whatever you require."

"For once, the greed and selfishness of the Admiralty works for us." Aika smirked. "Thanks, Enrique." She finished off her meal and picked up Fina's. "Seriously, though. Airsickness medicine. We should probably get a supply anyways, in case we pick up some crewmembers who aren't used to rough sailing."

"Are you expecting to find a lot of willing crewmembers who are not experienced sailors?" Enrique asked.

"Stranger things have happened." Aika shrugged, walking past him with a wide grin. "There's a rumor that a royal prince even joined up. But that's just plain ridiculous, isn't it?"

"Clearly." Enrique answered, amused. "After all, I'm just Enrique."

Aika paused. "Marco knows, but...how do you want us to handle it?"

"Handle what?"

"You being a prince."

Enrique considered it for a few seconds. "It will get out, eventually. But, for now at least, I should like to just be myself."

"You've always been yourself." Aika reminded him firmly. "That crown didn't get in the way of you doing what was right. Don't let it get in the way of you becoming someone better."

"I won't." He promised her, and meant it.

* * *

_Sailor's Isle_

_Evening_

Sailor's Isle was the kind of harbor town that never slept; when the sun went down, the lighthouse off on one side of the sprawling connected islands shone brighter, and lights blazed from the buildings. When the _Delphinus_ rolled in to do business, there was (naturally) some concerned fear from the residents who thought that Valua was rolling on them like it had done to Nasrad. That lasted up until Vyse, Aika, and Enrique flew down to the island on one of the ship's longboats with a Blue Rogue standard waving off of a flagpole hastily mounted to the engine's housing. After that, Aika dove right into the business of securing supplies from the ship parts merchant while Vyse took Enrique to the row of shops that dealt with sundries, foodstuffs, and items.

The Blue Rogue's reputation preceded him; The shopkeepers all glowed when Vyse introduced himself, called him 'Vyse The Daring', and cut him deals when he started haggling. The Nasrian merchants, especially, were quite willing to sell almost at cost as soon as they learned that Vyse fully intended on taking the fight to the Valuans. They even bumped into another boy, even younger than Marco who was situated in the corner of one shop named Pinta. It took the boy all of a minute's worth of pleading to get Vyse to agree to take him on as a crewmate, which had Pinta bouncing off of the roof for joy. Vyse had shrugged at Enrique's askance, said that 10 was a perfectly good age to start as a deckhand and runner, and that Pinta _had_ asked Vyse about going out with him the last time they were in port.

They set up orders for two month's worth of foodstores and set up delivery for first thing in the morning; the harbor was locked down, and no ships were allowed to leave until morning by order of the harbormaster. It was standing protocol in the wake of a stormy night, but as they left the last shop and sighed, Enrique tucked up the collar thick and ill-fitting leather longcoat he'd borrowed to stave off the rain around his neck a little higher and looked over to Vyse, without a hat and looking smug in a thin poncho that kept his weapons and his movements freer. "There is a bonus to not being able to leave port until tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"Admiral Belleza's spies will be unable to route a message back to the Valuan pickets about our presence until we are loaded up and ready to depart." If he hadn't been watching Vyse, if he hadn't spent days in the other man's presence (And Vyse was a man, young, yes, but seasoned and confident and a _Captain_ and Enrique would never do him the disservice of calling him a boy), he might have missed the slight twitch of Vyse's eye not underneath his goggle. He might not have seen how Vyse's mouth clenched up. "I don't believe I know the specifics of how you and Admiral Belleza fought." Enrique said carefully. "Was there more to it than her locating the Red Moon Crystal and summoning the Gigas to attack you?"

"Oh, loads more." Vyse said, with a smile that wasn't a smile. "Just her being her usual spy self. Put on a false face and outfit, got cozy with us, 'helped us' get to the Temple of Pyrynn so we could do the scut work of getting through all the traps for her."

"I'm sorry." Enrique said softly.

"You didn't do it." Vyse shrugged. "I would have preferred if she'd just tried to kill us from the start without the lies, though. Especially…" He paused, and chuckled. "Would you believe she made a pass at me?"

Enrique frowned. "Are you being serious?"

"Serious as a cannonball pointed at my head."

"Hm." Enrique shook his head as they kept on trudging ahead. "I take it she didn't succeed."

"No." Vyse answered, and his smile was much more genuine this time. "No, she didn't. She's pretty, and she was especially pretty disguised as a Nasrian exotic dancer, but...No. My eyes weren't set on her."

"I'm relieved to hear that." Enrique said, glancing up briefly as a flash of lightning illuminated the sky. "In truth, I think her heart is set on Lord Galcian."

"Are _you_ being serious?"

"As the grave, Vyse." Enrique replied back. "For a woman of so many secrets, that one she has forever failed to hide from the others in the Admiralty."

Vyse chuckled at that. "Wouldn't have been my first guess, but the heart wants what it wants. Come on, then. We've got a stop to make at the Guild before we meet up with Aika at the tavern."

The guildmaster at Sailor's Isle was as happy to greet Vyse as the merchants had been, although it was twinged with an element of nervousness. Enrique would have chalked it up to just being in the presence of an air pirate (Blue Rogue label notwithstanding), but after he let Vyse know about the latest bounties posted, his eyes darted left and right before the mustachioed man sighed. "Oh. And I got another notice to pass on to you." He slid a piece of paper across the counter, which bore no letters, and only a single black circle on it.

Vyse made a face and swore. "Again?"

"My apologies, sir." The guildmaster said reluctantly. "It's not good news, I know."

"Expected, though." Vyse muttered, pocketing the small bit of paper. He caught Enrique looking at him, and shrugged. "The Angel of Death. She's a bounty hunter who only goes after air pirates of notoriety, and ironically, is ranked on the board herself. We beat her once before, but I'm not in the habit of executing defeated opponents...Even if she did almost succeed in killing Aika." A hard look passed over his face for a moment before he washed it away with a laugh. "And here I was thinking that maybe she'd have wised up and moved on to chase some other pirate. Guess I'm just lucky."

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" The guildmaster asked, seeming to want to make up for being the messenger.

"Yeah, actually. Do you know of any sailors here on the Isle who are looking for work? Helmsmen, engineers, gunner's mates, physicians, that sort of thing?"

"Well, actually, there hasn't been many people applying for spots on sailing vessels." The guildmaster said. "This whole business with the burning of Nasrad has everyone looking for a rock to hide under. But I do know of one person that might fit the bill. He's a helmsman of some talent, and a passable swordsman. Unfortunately, he's as mercenary as they come, and he's listed on the Valuan anti-piracy boards. 'Lone Wolf' Lawrence."

"I've seen the name before, but I've never met the man." Vyse frowned. "Any idea where we might find him?"

"He likes to linger around the guild. Look for a surly fellow in a purple coat carrying a long cutlass." The guildmaster waved as they turned about and departed

"He wears the colors of royalty?" Enrique asked, once they were outside.

"You know, Enrique, some people actually like the color purple." Vyse pointed out. "Don't you?"

"I've always been more partial to blues and greens myself." Enrique admitted. "Earth tones."

"Huh." Vyse scratched at his chin as they circled the sailor's guild. "Well, you won't get any argument from me about liking the color blue."

"I should expect not." Enrique chuckled, and the two kept laughing softly before they turned another corner and…

_Well._ Ask for the man and there he is. A fellow in tan slacks and a purple overcoat stood under the eavestrough around the guild hall, hiding from the rain and staring out at the world like it had offended him with hard eyes under a mop of brown hair kept longer than Vyse's, and far less spiky. He glanced over at the pair as they paused.

"You boys need something?" The man asked coolly.

"Are you Lawrence, the helmsman?"

"Depends." The man said, not even shrugging.

Enrique half-expected Vyse to play along, but instead, the Blue Rogue captain just crossed his arms and stared back. "My name is Captain Vyse of the Blue Rogues. I'm looking for Lone Wolf Lawrence to offer him a spot on my crew as a helmsman and navigator."

"Then I'm Lawrence." The man said, pushing himself off of the wall and turning up his collar. "But my services don't come cheap. 10,000 gold."

Enrique's eyes went wide, but Vyse managed to hold himself to just one raised eyebrow.

"You're that good?" Vyse questioned him.

"If I'd been alive when Daccat was terrorizing the world, he would have gotten where he was going a lot faster. And he wouldn't have gotten lost in the process." Lawrence replied.

"Hm." Vyse pulled his bag around and started digging in it. "You're all talk so far. I'd have to see how you handle the wheel of the _Delphinus_ before I paid you _that_ much." He found what he was looking for, and produced a single gold coin. Vyse grinned and held it up so that the face caught the glow of one of the lamps shining in the storm. "And as for Daccat, I think I know a thing or two about the pirate myself. I found his treasure, after all."

Lawrence took the coin from him and examined it with narrowed eyes, then handed it back. "And this was all that you have left?"

"That was all there was." Vyse grinned at him, stowing the coin back away. "Daccat's biggest lesson was that the best treasure isn't in coin. It's found in friends, family, and freedom. And I happen to offer all three."

Lawrence snorted. "Sentimental drivel."

Vyse straightened up a bit, and Enrique could feel the tension settle in between them. "Tell you what. I can pay you 5,000 now, but the other half, let's put a wager on. You come with me and I'll show you that there are better helmsmen in the world than you, and that they do it _with_ that sentimental drivel. You admit that you're not the best there is, I keep the other 5,000 and you stay on as my helmsman, drawing regular ship's wages after that. You prove to me that you're better, I give you the other 5,000."

Lawrence sized Vyse up. "You're, what, ten years younger than me?"

"I've crossed the Southern Ocean, didn't you hear?" Vyse countered. "And I guarantee you we'll be crossing it again."

Lawrence and Vyse stared down each other for another ten seconds, then Lawrence extended his hand. "We have a contract then."

"Good." Vyse shook it and smiled. "Welcome to the Blue Rogues. There's an Oath that you'll have to take when we get situated, but mainly it's just a code of conduct to separate us from the Black Pirates. And we _may_ be getting into firefights with the Valuans. Just in case that's a dealbreaker."

"I have agreed to a contract." Lawrence said. "It's what I'm paid for." He held out a hand, and Vyse looked over to Enrique expectantly. The exiled prince sighed and reached for the large coinpurse that he'd brought along for 'incidental expenses' and after some mental number crunching, removed enough from the bag to leave 5,000 gold inside of it.

"There are some days I wonder, Vyse, if you only keep me around for my money."

"It's not your money, it's mine." Vyse argued with a wink. "I stole it all, remember?"

"Keenly." Enrique huffed, but he still smiled as Lawrence took the bag, examined it for a short while, then stowed it away with a nod.

"I am your man, captain. I take it your ship is that steel monstrosity that darkened the skies?" Lawrence asked.

"I doubt that we're personally responsible for the thunderstorm keeping the port locked down, but yes. The _Delphinus_ will be your berth for the foreseeable future." And then Vyse made a face. "I'm going to need to choose a flag soon."

"That's right, you have those three designs to choose from." Enrique commented, thinking back on the mockups that Vyse, Aika, and Fina had made. Enrique personally favored the 'dolphin' one Fina had made on a swath of blue fabric, even if it didn't inspire fear. He was tired of being associated with entities that inspired fear. Vyse seemed more willing to inspire _courage_ and that, at least, was a start.

"I may end up making a new one using elements of all three." Vyse muttered, and led their strange trio across the main street to the busiest tavern on the island. "Come on. Time to meet up with Aika. I'm buying dinner."

"With _my_ money." Enrique added cheerfully.

"Hush, you."

They were 15 feet from the doors when they were slammed open, and a flailing sailor, bleeding from his broken nose and heavily bruised along the side of his face, was thrown out by Aika and the tavern's owner, a pleasant curvy red-haired woman named Polly. The three parted as he flew towards them, and looked down at the heap of bruised and bleeding flesh before glancing up at the two women in the doorway.

"And don't you come back!" Polly shouted as the groaning fellow struggled to pick himself up again.

Vyse raised an eyebrow as Aika brushed her hands off. "Was he getting handsy?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." Aika snarled, gesturing to her favorite yellow blouse and skirt. "Because he thought _this_ was me leaving an open _invitation_ to being pawed at. It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that I dress for mobility and comfort because I work around ship's engines all day, _nooooo." _Vyse laughed, and Aika rolled her eyes and exhaled loudly. "Well, took care of him. And Polly here even helped."

"Of course, lass, I remembered you." She glanced over to Vyse. "And you as well, boy. Last time I saw the pair of you, you were talking Drachma into giving you two a ride to Valua." She glanced around. "Is he still with you?"

Both Vyse and Aika's smiles died. "We...we lost him." Vyse explained haltingly. "Rhaknam."

"Oh." Polly blinked, then shook her head. "The poor devil finally got the end he wanted." She smoothed out her skirt and then motioned to Vyse and Enrique and Lawrence. "Well, come on inside, boys. You can tell old Polly all about what you've been up to, Aika ordered a big meal for everyone. I don't think a fourth will add more of a dent to what I've cooked up for you."

Even as hungry as Enrique was for quality food and for as much as Vyse and Aika could pack away (Which did explain something about their boundless energy, Enrique realized), Polly's estimate had been correct. Having Lawrence around kept Enrique from feeling obligated to reach for a third thick slice of garlic bread when two sufficed. He would need to get serious about keeping up on his swordsmanship regardless if he wished to maintain his trim waistline.

Polly lingered at the table while her daughter Anne manned the counter, pouring liquor of every variety to the customers while her mother and Aika both kept a gimlet eye out for other troublemakers.

"So." She said, summarizing after Vyse and Aika hit a stopping point. "A quest to save the world."

"No pressure or anything." Vyse agreed with a smile. "Sailor's Isle was a natural first stop for supplies. And picking up crewmembers. So far we've got a kid named Pinta who's something of a treasure hunter, and this fella here."

"Lawrence." Polly said, staring at the sour-faced man in the purple longcoat. "He's a straight mercenary, you know."

"I have been paid to serve aboard the _Delphinus_." Lawrence intoned, with only the barest twitch of an eyebrow to indicate his distemper. "I am told that Captain Vyse has something to show me."

"The world. And how I'm a better helmsman than you are." Vyse said.

Polly blinked, then leaned back in her chair. "Anyone else coming along with you?"

"Not at the moment, no. But we've got a few more stops to make before we head for the Dark Rift." Vyse said, glancing around the tavern and lowering his voice so only they could hear him. "We'll need a full crew if we're going to stand a chance."

"The Dark Rift?" Polly's eyes widened. "That's...I lost my husband there. He was a sailor, signed on for the expedition to try and pierce the Rift. He never came home."

"I'm sorry, madam." Enrique said. "What was his name?"

"His name is Robinson." Polly said with a frown. "And he isn't dead."

"The Expedition to the Dark Rift predates the Valua-Nasr war. He's been gone 20 years." Enrique pressed the woman. "You think he is still alive?"

"My Robinson's a survivor." Polly declared authoritatively. "And I would know if he's dead. I would feel it." She stared at Enrique for a few more seconds until the prince nodded in surrender, and then the woman turned to Vyse. "Do you have a cook lined up, by any chance? A ship that size, with as large of a crew as you're going to need, you'll need somebody used to feeding a lot of people."

Vyse blinked. "Are you volunteering? Can you even volunteer? You still have your tavern here to take care of, and your daughter…"

"My daughter is older than you are, Vyse, and her father never knew she was born." Polly cut him off tersely. "She can handle herself, she knows this place in and out, and I taught her how to deal with menfolk that get grabby. If you're really planning on sailing the world, if there's even a _chance_ that we could find my husband, I have to take it. So yes, I'm volunteering." She jerked her head up and shouted back. "Anna! I'm going on a voyage with Captain Vyse here to find your father! Mind the tavern while I'm gone!"

Anna, busy wiping out a glass, looked over and smiled with a strong nod. "Right. Vyse, you'd better take good care of my mom, or I'll never forgive you!"

Vyse looked poleaxed, and Aika laughed loudly. "Damn, Vyse. I guess you've got no choice now."

"I suppose not." The Blue Rogue captain rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and recovered himself. "It would be nice to know that there's someone watching out for the female crewmembers. My Aika can take care of herself, but others might not be able to. Not at first."

"Wait up. _Your_ Aika?" Aika deadpanned, fixing a stare at Vyse. The brown-haired man cocked his head to the side.

"Sorry, should I not say that?"

Aika kept the stare up for another two seconds before smiling easily and wrapping her arms around his, leaning in close. "No, you can say it." He turned his head, and she kissed him full on the mouth, just a gentle affectionate peck that made her intentions, and his, clear. "You're not lying, after all." And Vyse grinned like the storm rumbling outside didn't matter, which, Enrique supposed, it didn't. Not to them.

Enrique looked between the two and realized that he might have missed something about the relationship between Vyse and his first mate, then tamped it down with the firm notion that it was none of his business.

Lawrence, naturally, wasn't fazed at all. "Well." The man said, raising his glass up again. "I can see that working for you won't be boring."

* * *

_Delphinus Foredeck, Moored at Sailor's Isle_

_118 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Mid-Morning_

Vyse had declared that they would most likely encounter trouble before they hoisted anchor and left Sailor's Isle behind, and Enrique had presumed that he meant it would be from Valuan sources, a fear that had been soundly laid to rest by the storm that grounded all departures until the next day.

He was beginning to realize that there was something akin to prophecy in the Blue Rogue's declarations, because right after the last of the supplies were loaded and the crew had been taken aboard and assigned berths, a visitor had come up and parked himself onto the Delphinus, standing astride a terrifying war machine that was vaguely reminiscent of the heavy ground offensive units that De Loco had been experimenting with in the Grand Fortress workshops.

He was one of the new bounties on the board at the Sailor's Guild; 'Loose Cannon' Lapen, a blond-haired hothead with a talent for mechanical engineering and a chip on his shoulder as wide as the Valuan Dartissey Mountain Range. He'd arrived at Sailor's Isle early in the morning after the storm cleared out, and quickly caught on to the gossip about the famous Blue Rogue Vyse being on 'that massive warship parked on the far side of the island.' From there, it was a simple matter for Lapen to postpone his original plans and head straight for the _Delphinus._

Which brought them here, with Vyse, Aika, and Fina standing by Enrique as Lapen stared them all down from the top of his machine 'Gunarm' (Not a very original name, but an accurate one, Enrique had to admit) and sneered.

"I take you down, Vyse, and my reputation as a dangerous fella is sealed. I'm not one for fighting, but my machine Gunarm here is. Teaching me to build stuff is about the only thing my good for nothin' Pops ever did for me!"

"Considering your reputation of terrorizing towns, I'm almost glad you left Sailor's Isle alone and came right for me." Vyse declared, his voice deadly dry. "But who was your father?"

"Hell if I know." Lapen snorted. "Pops just found me, dragged me off, and raised me with a bunch of other kids. Stupid thing for a pirate to do, really. He didn't teach us how to fight."

Whatever he said must have meant something to the other three, because Enrique watched Vyse, Aika and Fina all glance at one another meaningfully before Aika spoke up.

"Was your 'Pops' _Centime?"_

"You know the old bastard?"

Aika bared her teeth. "I know him well enough that he doesn't deserve to be called that. Centime's a _great_ father, he and his wife are wonderful parents to children that wouldn't have a chance at happiness and a decent life otherwise! A punk like you doesn't deserve to put him down!"

Which was clearly the wrong thing to say to Lapen, because he immediately bottled up, got red in the face, and launched a quad of hovering drones that spaced out around them all, pinning them in with exposed gunports.

"I'll have to settle for putting _you_ down, then." Lapen hissed, and the battle was joined.

It wasn't a _clean_ battle, by any means. It was nothing that Enrique had ever been prepared for. He knew the way of the blade as a duelist, a swordsman skilled in the rapier, the foil, epee, and the occasional dagger. He was used to fighting against a single opponent, or when pressed as Admiral Gregorio had insisted upon, defending himself against multiple opponents while he circled and sought higher ground and a more advantageous position to neutralize their numbers for a riposte and counterattack.

Lapen himself didn't fight; he didn't have to. His terror machine Gunarm was more than enough of a beast to keep all four of them on their toes, especially with the conical drones that kept firing high-powered musket rounds at them. Gunarm kept trying to either run them over, and when it wasn't doing that, it was unloading wild barrages of explosive mortarfire at them or, at its worst, charging up what Fina screamed was a miniaturized _Moonstone Cannon_ and trying to incinerate them.

Needless to say, this was a fight that went far beyond the realm of Enrique's experience in combat. Aside from momentary surprises, though, the other three handled it much better than he did. They weren't panicking. They were just pissed off.

They ducked behind one of the rotating turret mounts as the next wave of mortars detonated, hurling debris and deck plating in all directions and making Enrique hiss as a bit of it caught the edge of his exposed arm and tore through fabric and skin.

"I've got it." Fina hummed, quickly bringing a hand full of green warm fire up to the injury, making the cut fade away to nothing in seconds.

"So." Vyse said laconically. "I'm open to suggestions."

"His weapons are far too powerful." Fina shivered. "And that cannon of his is misaligned. I can hear it _singing_ when it fires, and it's off-pitch. Even a near miss could be fatal, he has to be using a cracked silver moonstone as the focusing lens. I'm amazed it hasn't blown itself apart yet!"

"I didn't think weapons could sing." Enrique volunteered, finding that he had nothing helpful to contribute while his ears were ringing.

"Apparently, neither does Admiral de Loco." Fina pointed out snippily. "The Moonstone Cannon installed on the _Delphinus_ is simply _atrocious_. I've been doing my best to tune it properly, but we have been busy with other matters."

Aika laughed in spite of the danger. "Fina gets touchy about next-generation weapons, Enrique. I'd get used to just nodding and accepting it."

_"Hey, Vyse!" _Lapen shouted from far back on the other side of the turret. _"Don't tell me I've got you running scared already? I haven't put nearly enough holes in your ship yet!"_

Vyse made a face. "That miserable jackass shouldn't be putting _any_ holes in my ship." Enrique smiled at that remark, but confined his chuckle. "Aika. You spot any weak points on that miserable rusted heap of a murdertank?"

The fiery redhead considered the question. "If that miniaturized moonstone cannon is as unstable as Fina thinks it is, we might be able to...I dunno, push it over the edge?"

"Crack the moonstone lens and the weapon won't be able to focus its power." Fina agreed. "And the way it's singing, it wouldn't take much. Shoving a sword through it would work, but you wouldn't want to be standing next to it afterwards."

"That kind of a hit is going to take a crapload of precision." Vyse pointed out warily. "I'm not sure if I could manage it, not without getting in range of that grabber arm. Or getting run over."

Enrique blinked. Precision. He could do precision.

"Leave it to me, then." Enrique declared, loosening the dueling dagger he kept strapped to his swordbelt. "He is more interested in you anyways, Vyse. Keep him distracted, and I shall strike the felling blow."

"Oh, I think we can manage a distraction." Aika chuckled, and manifested a blazing red aura around herself. "All those holes he's been making, I'm going to end up patching up again. I need a little irritation to work my spiritual powers. I'm very _irritated_ right now."

"Just don't lose your head, Aika." Fina sighed, and tapped each of them on the shoulder with a hand that glowed in silver light. Enrique felt a steady pulse of healing flow into him, easing away his fatigue and undoing the scrapes and minor blows he'd taken over the course of the engagement. It was a surprising but welcomed effect, and Vyse and Aika accepted it without concern.

Did _nothing_ faze these three?

Vyse readied his blades and shouted up and over the weapons turret. "Hey, Lapen! You mind terribly _not_ blowing holes in my ship?! I kind of need to be able to fly out of here after I get done kicking your ass!"

_"Big words, Mister Blue Rogue!" _Lapen hollered back. _"Are you coming out of there or am I coming in after you?"_

Vyse's aura shimmered with blue light, and it channeled down into his blades. Enrique shivered for a bit as he was struck by the impossible vision of something spreading out among their circle of four; some kind of protective aura, transparent to the point of vanishing entirely, and which took on the horrifying form of _skeletal ghosts shrouded in tattered blue fabric._

"We are Blue Rogues." Vyse breathed out slowly. "And the pirates of old defend our cause." Enrique shivered, almost feeling skeletal hands settle on his shoulders...but it wasn't cold. It was warm. Shielding. Vyse grinned and shouted out again. "We're coming out, Lapen! Time to finish this!"

Moving as one, they all rushed out from behind their cover and dashed for Gunarm. The conical drones all opened fire, but the barrier Vyse had erected flashed in front of them in bursts of light, a skeletal wraith deflecting the shots with a flicker of spiritual steel before flying across and slicing into the offenders with terrible purpose.

Aika's followup was to bound ahead into their midst and unleash her power with a fierce warcry that made the air around her _explode._ Before, the drones had shrugged off the blaze by dint of their outer skin. But that was damaged now; the fire burned away at their vulnerable interiors and incinerated them from the inside out. Deprived of his drones, there was nothing standing between them and Lapen.

Conversely, there was nothing standing between Gunarm and them, Enrique realized, right as the tank charged at them at full speed. Except for Fina, who shouted out something in a language Enrique had never heard before, and the floating pet that was always with her raced ahead, morphing midflight, until it took on the appearance of a..._ramp?_

There was no stopping Gunarm, no adjusting its trajectory. Cupil slammed down to the foredeck in his new ramped configuration, and Lapen could do nothing but scream as Gunarm hit the sloped surface, jerked up the incline at an odd tilt, and went _flying_. As it flew overhead on a course to land on its side, Vyse flashed up into the air, blue fire burning around both him and his swords, and with a bellowing yell, he fired off two cutting arc of spiritual fire from the blades that intersected and impacted right at the shoulder joint of Gunarm's massive hamfist. It cut through the metal cleanly, and the loss of the arm's weight sent Gunarm flying on a wider tilt, crashing onto the deck on its wounded side, unable to even pick itself back up again.

It could still spin itself around and take aim, though, and the barrel of that menacing moonstone gun soon pointed at Vyse.

"Enrique!" Fina screamed. _**"NOW!"**_ The power of command in that voice surpassed the fear the Silvite had, and Enrique found himself throwing his dagger without a thought.

It was probably better aimed that way. He didn't have time to doubt himself.

The dagger flew true and level, and struck the barrel of the arm cannon. Enrique could _hear it_ sliding out of view as it passed into the weapon and striking with the grating noise of steel against hastily processed moonstone crystal. He watched as the terrifying corona of light around the weapon's end suddenly blinked out…

And then Lapen was jumping off of Gunarm and running for cover. Almost too late. As it stood, the explosion caused by the weapon's instability becoming _worse_ picked up the air pirate in purple and sent him tumbling ass over teakettle across the deck while his marvelous war machine detonated and rained razor hot debris in every direction. It would have harmed them all if the strange aura Vyse had ensconced them with hadn't flared up, giving the last full measure of its strength to deflect and shield them.

There was silence for a few pregnant moments, and then Vyse just let out a cackle and tipped one cutlass back over his shoulder. "Nice shot, Enrique."

Enrique remembered to breathe then. "Are all of your fights as..._slapdashed_ as that one?"

"Usually." Aika chimed in with cheerful enthusiasm. "But you did good. I think you'll fit right in!"

"My joy overflows." Enrique said dryly, and then turned to stare at where Lapen was picking himself up again. "Now, about our wayward aggressor…"

Lapen didn't put up much of a fight once he realized his Gunarm was in bits and pieces and he was surrounded by four very capable fighters. He just sat up, sighed, and stared at Vyse with a growl. "Guess you win."

"Well, I didn't lose." Vyse shrugged, keeping a sword pointed down at him. "Why the hell do you have such a problem with Centime? I've _met_ the man. He's warm and caring and no child ever goes hungry or cold once he adopts them."

"Because he could do so much more!" Lapen snapped. "Maybe he was fine with just sailing around picking up orphans and living the simple life, but I wanted to _make something_ of myself! And he never encouraged me!"

"He taught you how to build things." Aika pointed out. "I'd call that encouragement."

"You don't get it." Lapen muttered, sounding more like a petulant child throwing a tantrum than a pirate who terrorized port towns in that moment.

Vyse just snorted. "I don't get it, huh? I left home to find my adventures, too. I can understand well enough. But you don't forget your roots. And you honor the people who raised you. Real parents or adopted parents. And Centime and his wife Carol are to be honored."

"If they cared about me, they wouldn't have pulled up and left. They would have told me where I could find them."

Enrique watched as Vyse and the girls glanced at one another, and then Vyse frowned as he looked back to Lapen. "I don't think they had a choice. They got caught in a storm in the Southern Ocean, and were hurled all the way to Ixa'taka. The _Ironsides_ is more or less permanently parked at Horteka while he and Hans try to get it off the ground again. He was a prisoner of the Valuans there until we freed him in a mass jailbreak."

Lapen stared at him. "Pops is...in Ixa'taka." He shook his head. "And they're all okay?"

"A little shaken up, a little weathered, but they're with good people."

"I...good." Lapen rubbed the back of his head and looked away. "That's good."

"You know, Mr. Lapen, I don't think Centime would be all that happy to hear about what you've been up to." Fina admonished him with a kindly voice. "He wouldn't like to hear that his son has been attacking settlements. He's a Blue Rogue, just like Vyse and Aika are."

Enrique blinked and looked over to the Silvite. That was true, a spot of memory tickled. When Dyne had sworn Enrique in as a Blue Rogue, Fina had vouched for him, but she had not called herself a Blue Rogue.

"You really ought to knock that shit off." Vyse said flatly. "Doing what you're doing to prove that you're somebody? You'll only be known as a criminal. Not a legend." He sighed. "Now get the hell off my ship." He turned around, sheathed his blades, and started to walk off. Enrique held his position while Lapen sat on the deck plating, watching him go.

"Will you see Pops again soon?" Lapen blurted out. Vyse paused, but didn't look back.

"Yeah. We will, actually. Do you have a message you want me to pass on to him?"

"No." Lapen said. "I want you to take me with you."

Enrique raised his eyebrows. Aika looked ready to yell at him again. Fina's face was an inscrutable mask. Vyse turned and stared at him.

"Why should I take you on board my ship when you just tried to kill me and my crew to bolster your _reputation?"_

"I'm a damn good engineer." Lapen insisted. "How many of those do you have working for you already?"

"I have Aika."

"She's one person. You can't run a ship this size, much less _maintain one_, with just one engineer."

"You have literally put over _two dozen holes in my ship."_ Vyse pointed to one particularly impressive hole where the Gunarm had exploded. "We haven't had the _time_ to reinforce it yet, and this will add additional time in drydock which we can't _afford to waste."_

"I put those holes there, I can fix them." Lapen stood up, staring back at Vyse. "Give me a Valuan arc welder, whatever you've got on board for hull repairs, and give me a couple of days. I can do the repairs on the fly. I've been furious at my Pops for two years now because I thought he left me. Now you tell me he's lost in a primitive land and basically marooned, and in trouble of being taken by the Valuans again. I need to make this right, Vyse."

"...Lapen, you've got issues." Vyse sighed. "And if I do this? If you come with? What's my guarantee that you won't turn on us?"

Lapen thought about it. "I don't know." He rubbed the back of his head. "My word isn't any good to you, and that's all I have. My word."

"I don't trust the promises of Black Pirates." Vyse nodded, and crossed his arms. Lapen looked down at the decking. "But I trust the promise of a Blue Rogue." And Lapen's head snapped up. "If you want to fly on this ship, you will have to do it as a Blue Rogue. You will have to speak the words of that commitment. Can you manage that? Can you be like your father, who you hate?"

"I hated him for a reason that was wrong." Lapen shrugged. "Wrong to hold on to hate that isn't deserved. Yes, Vyse. I surrender. Let me come with you so I can get back to Pops. I'll take the Oath."

The ceremony was brief, curt, and brutally in earnest. Afterwards, Aika dragged Lapen off to go get the supplies he'd need to repair the damage he caused, and Enrique, Fina, and Vyse made for the bridge.

"Is this commonplace?" Enrique asked, as they walked into the ship's corridors and made for the stairs going up.

"Is what commonplace?" Vyse shot back.

"Do all your enemies end up joining you?"

Vyse chuckled at that, and looked over to Fina, who giggled and masked her smile with a delicate hand. "Just the smart ones, Enrique."

* * *

The medication for airsickness that they had procured on Sailor's Isle helped, but did not entirely remove the problem of Enrique's ongoing struggle against nausea and disorientation. It remained problematic enough that Vyse had brought Enrique with him when he had gone to treat with a vessel bearing a red and white sail, which belonged to a man called 'Doc.'

While Vyse had fed a particularly impressive bird the transparent and nearly invisible moonfish from his bag, Doc had given Enrique the once-over, chuckled about 'working with royalty', changed the prescription up a little, and then shown him a series of orientation exercises meant to 'stabilize the inner ear and restore your sense of balance.' All in all, it had been a pleasant enough encounter, with Vyse taking a few new items back aboard the _Delphinus_ with them.

Those exercises had proven to be incredibly helpful after _another_ ship, this one bearing a pale silver blue sail, caught them right before they reached the South Danel Strait. Vyse didn't even seem worried about it, he was just resigned as he sighed, gestured to Aika and Fina, and then clapped a hand on Enrique's shoulder. "You'd better come with us, we might need the backup."

It had anchored to the ship's rail outside on the foredeck, and when the four of them emerged, a young woman around Vyse's age with white hair teased blue and a particularly vicious looking scythe stood there waiting for them.

"I got your note." Vyse said blandly, producing the same paper square with the black dot that the guildmaster had given to him the day before. "You still want to kill me?"

"I am the Angel of Death." The woman intoned. "Air Pirates are my prey, and this will be your grave."

"You call us out and then you start spouting this nonsense?" Aika demanded with a hiss, and she rubbed at her throat as she did so. "You've got problems, lady. So we beat you once. Just give it a rest already. What's your beef?"

"You speak as though my search for you is a recent development." Her eyes narrowed. "These past 7 years I've been scouring for any trace of you...Vyse. I have no more words for you! En garde, Vyse!"

_En garde?_ Enrique puzzled over the oddity of that phrase, the presence of a formal Valuan dueling term. His curiosity fizzled fast once the fight began.

The Angel of Death was a terrifying opponent; skilled in both magic and close quarters combat. Enrique found himself rushing to aid Vyse in deflecting her wild flurries of blows, while Aika cast one protective ward after another, ensconcing the team in bubbles of spiritual energy that disrupted spellcasting. Thankfully, Fina's own healing and restorative powers somehow cleared that barrier.

"No dog this time?" Vyse panted, keeping pace with his assassin thanks to Enrique joining him in the vanguard. "Last time you had that pet keeping tabs on you and trying to ruin our day!"

"I don't need a _pet_ to put you down!" The woman snarled, and struck out with a bladed shoe that gashed his coat open and exposed the chainmail underneath. Forced back by the weight of the kick, Enrique found himself standing alone in front of the girl, and his rapier clashed against her scythe. A twist of his arm locked it in place against his blade guard, and the two strained against each other as she tried to get him to release it.

"What is your name?" Enrique got out through his grit teeth.

"Piastol." The woman snarled, jerking forcefully and almost tipping him over. Enrique pulled back and restored his balance, and her eyes narrowed. "I know you."

"Must have that kind of a face." Enrique joked.

"No." Her eyes widened. "You are the _Prince_ of Valua. Prince Enrique!"

"Prince in exile." He countered, and ducked under her scythe as she finally managed to get it free and tugged hard on it, threatening the back of his head.

"You dare ally yourself with these pirates? These _murderers?!"_ The woman howled.

"I seek justice." Enrique countered. "I find it more present with these Blue Rogues than among my own people." She screamed at the inference and came at him with all of her fury, whirling with scythe and bladed shoes and quickly blowing past his guard. Enrique could see his death in her techniques, a mixture of Valuan classical duelist's techniques and wilder, more dervish-like maneuvers more common among the Nasrian swordmasters.

He cried out as she scored her first slash upon him, and reacted instinctively, shunting his spiritual power outwards to cling around his body in a faint yellow and orange glow that absorbed close to half of her power. The deadly combination attack still left him bleeding heavily from a dozen cuts and gasping for air. Piastol raised her scythe for the finishing blow, but was stopped when Vyse roared back into the fight and intercepted her, keeping Piastol off-balance and on the defensive as his blades, burning with cold blue fire, chipped away at her stance.

Aika and Fina were at his side in moments, the two of them each shattering a crystal of green magic against his torso that suffused him with vitality and removed his injuries and pain.

"Sacres crystals." Aika said with a smile in answer to his unspoken question. "Don't fight crazy women without them."

"Thank you." Enrique exhaled and tightened his grip on his sword. "How did you defeat her last time?"

"She killed Aika, I revived Aika, and then Vyse made her pay for it." Fina said tersely. "There is nothing in her heart but rage."

"And two kingdom's worth of combat training in her body." Enrique said, feeling the ongoing restoration effect of Fina's power wiping away the last vestiges of his pain. "Right. Ladies? I have a fight to finish. Vyse is outmatched." His aura began to glow again, the off-orange dissipating as pure yellow fury, the beating heart of Valua's patron moon, flowed through him in deadly earnest.

Vyse was flagging; his signature move was a flurry of blows he titled 'Cutlass Fury', but it was draining on his spiritual energy reserves. When he stopped swinging and lost the offensive, the Angel of Death would fall on him like...well. Like an angel of death.

Perhaps that would be his fate in a different scenario. But it would not be his fate today.

"Vyse!" Enrique shouted, dashing the last thirty feet into the fray. "Switch!"

Vyse hadn't trained with Enrique, but he had, as the prince had hoped, learned a thing or two about paired swordfighting from Captain Dyne. The man had been a capable Valuan officer before he walked away from the kingdom that decided to become an empire. Vyse knew how to switch out. He pulled back, and Enrique moved in, and the Angel of Death had no time at all to catch her breath.

Enrique's blade flashed with speed, with purpose, with killing intent. Behind every slice and stab and lunge were the words of Admiral Gregorio, a man he lovingly called uncle even now.

_"Your blade is not your life, my prince. It is the life of those you would protect. A blade can harm, and a blade more rarely, protects. When you draw your weapon, every time, you must visualize your intent. Do you draw your blade to take lives...or to save them?"_

Enrique's first lessons had been with Gregorio. His most important lessons. The ones that followed, when Gregorio went back on active rotation and his mother had Galcian secure 'more appropriate' tutors had taught him how to harm, to maim, to deal lethal blows.

But they hadn't been able to take away his most valuable lessons. Enrique only harmed to protect others. He was a defender, first and foremost.

He was Vyse's defender now.

She had been flagging as well, and while Enrique could not strike with his feet, he knew how to _move them_. Grazing slices were laid onto her knuckles, along her forearms from near misses where his aura alone was enough to wound her. And then as those first glancing blows weakened her stance, additional stabs gouged painful but ultimately non-lethal nicks and cuts along her shoulders, her exposed torso, and even her legs.

"Enrique! _Switch!"_ Vyse shouted out, and Enrique leapt backwards in a defensive posture that proved wholly unnecessary. The woman had taken too many painful and debilitating hits to pursue him, and then Vyse was on her, swinging away with renewed vigor. She could do nothing but defend herself, and while his strikes were rough and done more out of impulse than instinct, they proved devastating enough. More bleeding cuts were carved into her, and the last blow tore the scythe out of her hands and sent it scattering along the (still damaged) foredeck until it fell into the hole that Gunarm's destruction had created earlier in the day.

She fell to her knees, and Vyse pressed his main cutlass to just under her chin. "Yield." He commanded grimly.

"I yield." She croaked out, and Vyse nodded and pulled his weapons back. She stared at him with haunted grief. "Why? Why is it that I finally fight the man I've been searching for all these years, and yet...I cannot win?"

Vyse breathed out through his nose. "Seriously, Piastol. What's this all about, anyways?"

_Piastol?_ Enrique blinked, looking between Vyse and the defeated woman. The name tickled the back of his mind, but he couldn't place why. Still, at least he had a name for this pirate assassin, and not just a title.

"Yeah." Aika piped in. "And you've been chasing us for 7 years? That's ridiculous. Seven years ago, we were ten years old going on eleven. What could we have done to you?"

She probably meant the question to disarm, but it had the opposite effect. Piastol hissed and her eyes burned with cold, silver fury. "Silence." She got out. "You could never understand my pain." And then she was lurching to her feet, and pointing a shaky hand at them. "Remember this, Vyse. Don't think you can escape your fate! I'll never forgive you!"

Vyse just stared at her. "This is twice now you've fought me. Two times we've defeated you."

"Only because you refuse to fight me yourself, properly!"

"Blue Rogues are never alone." Vyse countered, then blinked. "Oh. Wow. I've gotta remember that. But for now, get the hell off my ship."

Piastol motioned her head towards the gaping hole in the deck. "My scythe?"

"Trophy." Vyse denied her flatly. "Buy another one."

"Pirate." She snapped, and turned about to make for her ship.

"That's _Blue Rogue_, honey!" Aika called out after her. Piastol just screamed in reply, and in two minutes' time, her ship was unmoored from the _Delphinus_ and steadily drifting away. They all watched it depart, and then Vyse clapped his hands together.

"All right, there's that done!" He said cheerfully. "So, waffles?"

"Waffles!" Aika gleefully called back. "I think Polly knows how to make them!" Vyse and his two most trusted shipmates started back for the foredeck hatch, and after sheathing his sword, Enrique followed with amused humor.

"From killing intent to good humor in so short a time, Vyse? How do you manage it?"

"Life's too short to spend angry." The captain said to him laconically.

"And the waffles?"

"We did good. So, we get waffles." Aika smirked, and threw an arm over both Vyse and Fina's shoulders, who calmly leaned into her and then brought their own to encircle her back.

"Ah." Enrique said, taking in the sight of such easy comradeship and feeling another tickling in his brain. The reason for it still escaped him.

* * *

_The South Danel Strait_

_119 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Delphinus Galley_

_Morning_

The galley and dining hall of what would have been his flagship in a different life was still sparsely decorated, but there was no mistaking the opulence and grandeur that the ship's designers had been going for. Most of the ship was constructed with pure function in mind, Valuan utilitarianism at its finest. Only the captain's quarters, the bridge, and the galley had any spark of character, and that spark bespoke royalty and presence and an expectation for grander things.

Case in point; the electric chandelier hanging from the ceiling on a heavily reinforced mount with double-strength chain cabling was anything but standard issue. It did provide a great deal of light and warmth to the space, with its wood paneling covering the interior metal walls. The dining tables had space for close to 150 men, and these were woefully empty. In a combat situation, the chandelier was meant to be retracted up to the ceiling and locked in place so as to not swing about and become a hazard. For now, it was turned off so the floor-to-ceiling open windows could let in the sparkling morning light.

Polly had proven herself to be a marvelous ship's cook; the 'waffles' he had partaken of the night before had been delicious, a fluffy treat nowhere near as decadent as the cakes he knew from the palace...but somehow more meaningful. It had taken him until he went to bed to realize why the simple meal had been so delicious.

It was the company he had while he enjoyed it that made the difference. He had usually eaten alone back at the palace, or at a formal dinner where everyone was so busy jockeying for position and favor that the meal went unenjoyed. It was something else he would want to change.

If they lived through this. If he even had the opportunity to.

He sipped at his tea, a strong and bracing Nasrian blend that Polly had insisted on them buying from Sailor's Isle before they departed. His modified airsickness medicine provided to him by 'Doc' had been effective, and his symptoms were reduced to only a slight dizziness at rest, without any nausea. He looked up in time to see Aika and Fina come over to his table, each carrying a tray and walking slowly as if still half asleep.

No, he realized as his mind restarted and he took in the sight of them again. Not half-asleep. Half-dead. They both looked miserable, walked as though every step made them want to wince in pain, and their faces were pale and ashen.

"Good morning, ladies." Enrique said, rising out of his seat as they came to the table, and remained standing until they had taken their seats. Some courtly manners he didn't want to escape completely, and this was such a clear mark of respect that it came as second nature. "You do not look well." He suggested politely.

Aika snorted while Fina reached for her teacup. "We feel like shit." Aika muttered. Fina hummed in agreement and took a small sip, making a face. "What's wrong, Princess? Tea too strong?"

"Not strong enough." Fina complained. "We won't reach Ixa'taka soon enough."

Aika blinked. "Oh. Coffee, right?"

Fina looked over to the other woman and smiled weakly. "The drink of the gods, according to Isapa. And sometimes called that colloquially."

Enrique cocked his head to the side. "You know, there are times that I feel very much like an outsider among you three?" Aika and Fina turned to look at him, and he smiled in apology. "There is so much shared history between you three, so many events and stories and inside jokes that I am constantly missing out on." They both smiled in the same way, trying to work through their pain, and he waved off any lingering concern. "It is nothing you can amend. It is my own problem, I do not need to know the depth of your trials to see the good people it has made of you."

"You're a good person too, Enrique." Aika pointed out. "Don't go forgetting that."

"I never do." Enrique said, and for a moment, it was almost like Uncle Gregorio's hand was resting on his shoulder, squeezing it warmly in approval. "But truly, you two look to be in pain. Is there nothing I can do to help you? Nothing I can procure for your relief?"

"Ah...no." Fina sighed, drinking more of her tea and leaving her toast to go cold. "It's woman troubles, Enrique."

"Ah." The prince blinked at that, trying to suss out the hidden meaning. His schooling had been more on politics and rulership than human biology, but he wasn't entirely blind. A woman's monthly course was to be expected, and it apparently was worse for others. "My apologies, then. If I can lighten your duties as you...suffer through it...please, let me know."

"Thank you, Enrique, but we'll manage." Aika said. "We can pull our own weight. There's not enough of a crew yet for us to get any downtime." Her eyes glinted. "Have you seen Lapen this morning yet?"

"He ate and he left, grumbling the entire time about how much work there was left to do in ship's repairs."

"His own fault for making the holes." Aika said. "I'll show him the ropes about keeping the engines tuned up and running smoothly after he gets done with his community service." Her smile went predatory. "And we collect the bounty for stopping him at the guild offices in Nasrad. I kept Gunarm's head as proof."

"We have Piastol's scythe as well." Enrique realized. "Is there a bounty for her?"

"For her, we'd need the body." Aika shook her head. "And I'm fine with not collecting that one."

Enrique blinked. "I...would have to agree with you there." He wanted many things, but...the hurt on Piastol's face? The pain? Her death was something he didn't want on his hands.

Vyse came over and sat down, a box tucked under one arm. "You two okay?" He asked, immediately dialing in on the discomfort that Aika and Fina displayed.

"The..._medicine_ we took for an anti-ovulant and preventative was stronger than I expected." Fina hedged her response carefully, and her eyes flickered over to Enrique briefly. "It worked, but we might be better off finding less aggressive alternatives going forward."

"Ah." Enrique caught on to the conversation, snapping his fingers. "I do not know much about woman's health issues, but I have heard that some remedies meant for reducing menstruation and limiting the chance of pregnancy do not always 'mesh well' with every patient. You must have gotten a batch of medicine to limit your, erm, courses on Sailor's Isle that is having an adverse reaction. Well, it makes sense now."

Fina chuckled while Aika's face blushed bright red. "It does?"

"Of course." Enrique said with a smile. "It's a damned inconvenience what you have to go through every month, and I have studied that the pain can be quite crippling in the short term. Of course you want to be at your best physically, and reduce the symptoms. Quite proactive of you, really."

"Yes!" Aika stammered, alternatively nodding and shaking her head in a rhythm that puzzled the prince. "Yes, that's exactly it!"

Fina laughed under her breath, opened her mouth to say something as she looked at Vyse, then closed it and shrugged. Vyse just rolled his eyes and smirked. "Well. Thank you for the vote of support, Enrique. Unfortunately, the _medication_ we took seems to be worse than the cure in this case."

"Then you must change the medication." Enrique shrugged.

"Yeah, no. There hasn't been a lot of _effort_ put forth into women's health. The remedies on the market are just terrible." Aika shivered. "Sailor's Isle didn't have a lot of choices. So unless you know some miracle doctor who's been studying medicine intimately for decades…"

And there was another flash, a connection of problem and solution in the back of Enrique's mind, and this time he was able to hold onto it.

"There is." Enrique blurted out, and wondered why he hadn't thought of it before. Of course. He would be a _perfect_ candidate. "His name is Illchymis. He was a member of the Valuan nobility who could have lived an easy life, but instead preferred to study medicine wherever and however he could. He is a master herbalist and chemist, and before he left Valua to live in seclusion, he was supposedly the best physician in the area of medicines on the continent. Unfortunately, Valua wanted to use him for wartime purposes, so...he left."

Vyse leaned forward over the table. "Any chance you happen to know where he went? It sounds like he'd be a perfect addition to the crew."

"Somewhere in the Frontier, north of the Valuan continent in the gray skies just short of the Freezing Sky Rift." Enrique shrugged. "The Admiralty has sent scouts, but they've never found him. He's very well hidden."

"I think we can spare the time to search for him." Vyse said, looking to the women. "Especially if it will help you two. You looked terrible when you got up this morning. I don't want to see you looking that miserable ever again."

The three looked at each other for close to ten seconds in silence, pale smiles poking out from behind waxy, pain-filled faces, and again Enrique wondered what he was missing. He knew that Vyse was romantically attached to Aika, he'd seen the ease at which she kissed him and how he glowed after, but…

"Oh." Vyse started, and set the box down on the table. Enrique lost his train of thought and frowned briefly before refocusing on Vyse. "There was something I wanted to show you all. I finally decided on a flag design for the _Delphinus_, and for us more specifically."

"The Blue Rogues don't have a standard flag?" Enrique asked. "I know you were struggling with a personalized one, but I thought you'd at least have one design that every Blue Rogue ship flew."

"Amazingly, no." Vyse cleared up the problem. "Blue Rogues are _very_ decentralized. My father had his own flag. Centime had a different one."

"And Calamity Clara had one of her own, which had pink highlights in it." Fina added helpfully.

"It's something I never gave much thought to until my father explained it to me." Vyse said. "We're so far spread out over Mid-World that it just didn't make any sense to have a central authority. They all follow the same Code. Beyond that? Personal preference." He cracked the box open. "Fina wanted us to use dolphins on the flag, even though Valua named the ship after a constellation, which is their tradition. Aika wanted a winking cat with a coin in its mouth, and me? Well, hard to go wrong with the skull and sword. But then I realized, I may be the captain, but this is _our_ ship." He looked between them all. "So I designed a flag that was for all of us."

He brought out a measure of folded up blue fabric, smaller than a full sized ship's flag would be, then walked away from the table and took it to the wall, where he used daggers to tack up first one corner, and then the other. Then he walked to the other side of the flag, hoisted up the blue-painted canvas, and finished setting it up.

Fina gasped in wonder, Aika stared, and Enrique blinked in surprise.

On a sea of blue fabric lay the outline of a coin in white, and inside of the coin was a skull with two swords underneath it, two dolphins bordering it above, and the words _Blue Rogues Fly Free_ encircling the entire picture on the coin.

One of the swords, though, wasn't a cutlass. It was a rapier.

Vyse walked back to the table, sat down, and stared at the flag. "We're Blue Rogues, and we Fly Free." He explained softly. "But we aren't Black Pirates. The skull is my emblem. The coin is our purpose; the collapse of the empire and the start of open trade, open borders without tyranny. The dolphins are the warmth and compassion we carry for ourselves, for our friends, for the innocents we protect. And the swords are the strength we use to defend them."

"One of those swords is mine." Enrique said reverently.

"You're a Blue Rogue now, Prince Enrique." Vyse said, patting him on the arm. "And there's more of a guardian to you than a killer. We need that."

"You have it, Vyse." Enrique promised, turning and looking to him with watery eyes. "You have my sword, and my strength." He held out his hand to Vyse, and the captain beamed back at him and they clasped arms, gripping the other's forearm in the old style.

"Aww. Look, Fina. Bromance." Aika snarked, and the two women fell into laughter that broke the solemnity of the moment.

"I taught you that word!" Fina giggled.

"It's a good word." Aika defended it. "So. I'm fine with the flag design. Fina?"

"I like it. It's the best parts of all of us." The Silvite agreed.

Vyse looked to Enrique expectantly, and Enrique got up and walked over to the flag, tracing his fingers over the surface of the fabric. He heard Vyse get up and follow him.

"I haven't had a flag to be proud of in years, Vyse." Enrique said. He looked back and saw Vyse raising an eyebrow, asking the question without speaking. _And now?_

Now, when he needed it most, he heard the voice of his 'Uncle' Admiral Gregorio. His teacher, his mentor, his conscience and father in all but blood.

'_Valua is not what it once was….But you might bring it back.' _

Enrique stepped back and nodded. "You're going to change the world, Vyse."

"So will you."

"I will settle for returning Valua to a kingdom and making amends for our misdeeds." Enrique clarified, and felt the rightness of the words as they settled into his heart. "But you? The world will fly under your flag."

"A prophecy?" Vyse asked warily.

"A feeling." Enrique said, and knew it to be truth. He could feel all the world holding its breath, waiting to see what would come next.

He couldn't wait to see it for himself.


	23. A World Full Of Rogues (Part 1)

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Twenty-Three: A World Full of Rogues (Part 1)**

_The City of Nasrad, Lands Under the Red Moon_

_120 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

To the people of Nasrad, the presence of the _Delphinus_ would have come as a terrible shock. No naval vessel had stood in the path of the ship as it crossed the South Danel Strait, and there were far more unregistered merchant ships and likely Black Pirates sailing the skies. Most had kept well clear of the _Delphinus_, and only one ship had made the attempt at an attack, which Vyse had been almost certain was one that belonged to Baltor the Black-Bearded.

It had only taken a single well-placed salvo from _one_ of the ship's rotating turrets to lay the _Blackbeard II_ low and send it flying off for cover and repairs, and then the rest of the trip was uneventful until they made port.

Rather than parking the _Delphinus_ directly in what was left of Nasrad's dilapidated and torn apart harbor, which would have been impossible for its size, Vyse left Fina in command of the ship and went down in one of the ship's runabouts with Aika and Enrique.

There were plenty of errands to be seen to, and there was the matter of the ship's engineer and the builder which Captain Gilder had said would be waiting for them back on Crescent Island, a solid day's worth of traveling in the much faster _Delphinus_. Though Gilder had said he'd leave them with three weeks' worth of provisions, Vyse had no desire to tempt fate and leave the men hungry and thirsty and forced to rough it like he had, if there was a choice. But Enrique had insisted that there were other things to be done as well besides seeking provisions, reporting in to the sailor's guild, and looking for crewmembers. The exiled prince's eyes leapt from the ruins of one Nasrian edifice or structure to the next, slowly building a tally of sins and travesties committed by the Valuan Armada.

Vyse paused and set a hand on his shoulder. "You didn't do this." He reminded the older man firmly.

"Didn't I?" Enrique asked in return, his voice soft and low as he stared at it all from underneath his beret. He'd worn a more standard outfit instead of his uniform for this jaunt, but had refused to go without his beret. "Was it not my people who did this?" He went on, motioning to a few Nasrian children, dressed in rags, scurrying from one spot of shade to another as they traversed the harbor in search of food, or coin, or things that could be turned to coin.

"You can't bear the weight of the world on your shoulders. It's too much for one man." Vyse said.

"Ironic. That, coming from you." Enrique muttered, and walked on past ruined stands covered by shrapnel-torn tent covers towards a ladder that went up to the somehow still standing parapets around the harbor. Vyse frowned and followed after him, with Aika bringing up the rear after stowing away their checklist.

"Ironic how?"

"You, who would stand alone against the Armada in defense of the world, think to tell me not to bear the weight of it." Enrique reached the base of the ladder and looked to Vyse with calm, but deadly serious eyes. "I cannot undo their sins, Vyse. Allow me at least to grieve for those wronged by my blood."

Vyse shifted uncomfortably with those words, remembering a warning that his father Dyne had given him one of the brief moments he had been alone with him on their visit home. _'To a true Valuan royal, there is no distinction between immediate family and their people when they speak of their blood. The King believed himself a father to all of his people, and acted so. If Enrique is the man I hope he is, he will act the same. Don't let him drown in accountability, but understand he will grieve all the same.'_

"Do what you must. But then remember you aren't alone." Vyse told Enrique, reaching out and grasping his elbow for half a second.

Enrique smiled, nodding once. "No, I am not. Thank you, captain." He headed up the ladder, and Vyse looked back to Aika, who rolled her eyes and gestured for him to follow their wayward royal.

As they neared the top of the ladder, they heard an angry shout and then the sound of breaking glass. Vyse winced as he cleared the top and found Enrique warily approaching an enormous bear of a man, shirtless and dressed in the headdress of the Nasrian military, stumbling next to the blown apart remains of what had once been a powerful fixed cannon pointing out towards the harbor. Two other Nasrian soldiers were trying to hold him up, begging with him.

"Please, Khazim! Enough of this, you are killing yourself with the cactus liqueur!" One of them pleaded with the larger fellow.

"Bah! What does it matter?!" The large man named Khazim roared, using one barreled arm to throw the two normal sized men back away from him as he wobbled on the edge of inebriated imbalance. "Years, we trained! _Years!_ The best cannon crew in all of Nasr, and for what? For our guns to st...st...sit _useless_ when the Valuans flew in not from the south, but from our north! That's what we've become, what Khazim has become! We are _useless!_" He spun around, eyes hidden behind gunner's goggles, and growled at them. "So let me drink, let me forr-get our failure, the deaths of our people!"

"You should not bury any of that pain, soldier." Enrique shouted out, and the drunken goliath and his two underlings turned as one to look at him and Vyse and Aika, who stood behind the exiled prince in disguise. "You feel grief and rage, and those are valid, rightful feelings. You should not hide from them."

"Oh yeah?" Khazim slurred, stumbling forward a step. "And who're you to tell Khazim how to feel?"

"Someone who also grieves for Nasrad and its people."

"There _**is no more Nasrad!"**_ Kazhim roared, and charged at Enrique. The prince sidestepped him neatly, tripped him, and sent Kazhim sprawling onto the stone walkway of the parapet before falling back a few paces. Khazim grunted and struggled to pick himself up. "The Nasultan's _dead_, the palace is _rubble_, our city…"

"Is but stone and mortar and wood and metal, and all can be rebuilt in time." Enrique snapped back at him. "What of your people? Did the Valuans kill them all, or merely put the torch to Nasrad and fly away?"

It was a question Vyse already knew the answer to; Ramirez and the 6th Fleet had blitzed Nasrad intent on maximum damage and shock, but had pulled back after capturing himself and Fina and Aika and Gilder. Nasrad had burned, but there had been no methodical campaign of extermination.

Khazim breathed hard, and Enrique leaned in. "So long as your people endure, Khazim, Nasrad endures. You are more than your Nasultan. He was a symbol and his death is tragic, but Nasr is not gone. It can yet rise again. But not if good men like you drink yourselves into oblivion."

He kept his distance as Khazim slowly stood back up, finally allowing his men to help support him. Khazim sniffed once, rubbed an arm under his nose, and nodded mutely as he looked away.

Vyse saw opportunity, though, and he was not one to waste it. "Khazim, was it?" He said. "You're a gunner?"

"There is none better in all of Nasr, be it on ground or in the fleet." One of Khazim's men declared proudly.

Vyse smiled. "Are you interested in a job?"

"Doing what?"

"What you were trained to do." Vyse declared. "Operating the cannons of a warship, and taking the fight to Valua." With Khazim's eyes on him, Vyse raised his arm and pointed to the _Delphinus_ in the distance, one and a half miles from the coast of Nasrad's harbor. "My name is Captain Vyse of the Blue Rogues. And that is my ship, the _Delphinus_. We are enemies of Valua, publicly declared, and twice have I escaped the Grand Fortress."

Enrique caught on to his train of thought, and slipped into the conversation effortlessly. "Khazim. There are many ways to help your people. But I see in you more of a warrior than a builder. Your place is not here in the ruins, rebuilding Nasrad out of the ashes. Your place is with us, making the Armada and Lord Galcian and all the admirals pay for what they did to your people."

Khazim's jaw firmed up. "You would declare war on Valua?"

"The Blue Rogues have been at war with Valua for two decades." Vyse pointed out, extending an arm to Khazim. "Where we're going, with what we're doing, I want the best serving under me. Are you the best, Khazim? Are you willing to join my crew and bring the fight to Valua, to lead it away from your people?"

Khazim took in a deep and bracing breath, then pushed himself up away from his men and stood tall. The Nasrian soldier and gunner came to attention and threw out the salute of his people, right arm cocked at the elbow and his hand bladed flat against his forehead, palm facing outwards.

"Khazim will show Valua the meaning of _true firepower!_ Just you watch, captain!"

Vyse smiled and looked over to Enrique, who smirked back. "In that case, welcome aboard, Khazim. Enrique? You mind flying Khazim and his men back to the _Delphinus_ and getting them a berth? Then take them to the gunnery station under the foredeck and get them used to the cannons and torpedoes they'll be using. Khazim, any suggestions or advice you might have as a seasoned gunner, be sure to pass it up the line to either Enrique, Fina, or my Chief Engineer Aika here."

"Yes, captain!" Khazim bellowed, red in the face but brimming with promise instead of alcoholic poisoning.

Vyse and Aika went back down to the street level and headed into what was left of the city, leaving Enrique to handle the business of seeing to their newest crewmembers.

"Well, that worked out." Aika mused. "I'm amazed we've gotten this far without a proper gunner's crew."

"This is just the beginning." Vyse told his lover, all business as they wandered into the streets of Nasrad.

* * *

"Nasrad is rebuilding. Slowly." The sailor's guild guildmaster told Vyse as he finished handing over the last sack of coins for the report of the defeat of 'Loose Cannon Lapen.' The head of the rolling tank Gunarm proved effective as proof of it. "But what remains of our great navy has been on the run since the Nasultan's death. There have been some reports of them being sighted in the Frontier Lands to the far north, but there is nothing up there of any value."

Vyse hummed thoughtfully. "Except for them. What about Valua? Have there been any other raids on Nasrad since?"

The guildmaster thought about it. "No. There are some grumblings that they might move to enforce a blockade if Nasrad does not submit to annexation, but…"

"But they don't dare until the whole of the Nasrad Home Fleet is neutralized." Vyse surmised. "So long as they're in the wind, Nasrad is...safer." The Blue Rogue smiled as he tucked the funds away. "They are keeping you safe the only way they can."

"Perhaps they are." The guildmaster conceded with a smile. "Admiral Komullah was always a crafty one. But you have not done badly for yourself either. Escaping the Grand Fortress a second time? And stealing one of the Valuan's own ships to do it?"

"Blue Rogue." Vyse replied, letting his Code and his allegiance speak for itself. The guildmaster laughed, and Vyse grinned and pulled the coin from his pocket that he had been thumbing unconsciously; Daccat's coin. "We have a habit of doing the impossible."

The guildmaster nodded, and his eyes alighted on the coin that Vyse rolled between his fingers. "Wait a moment. What's that you have there?" He blinked. "That's not a standard gold coin of Valuan or Nasrian minting."

"You can tell that much about it from a passing glance?" Vyse mused, rolling it back the other direction. The trick had taken him a year to learn and work up the finger dexterity for, but it had proven invaluable in other endeavors. Like lockpicking, and small engine repair, and lovem…

_Well._ He smirked to himself and let the coin come to a stop, flipping it back in his palm. He was especially proud of the last one. Fina certainly had held no complaints about his talented fingers.

The guildmaster came around his desk and leaned in for a closer look, then went pale. "That emblem...That's Daccat's symbol!" He exclaimed. "A genuine gold coin from Daccat's missing treasure? After all this time?! Where did you find it?"

"The Frontier Lands." Vyse said. "But there wasn't a treasure. Daccat was apparently a horrible prankster. Or a wonderful teacher. An island full of elaborate traps and puzzles, and at the end, a lesson; one can do nothing alone. Any endeavor worth pursuing must be faced with friends, family, and allies. The greatest treasures." He held up the coin and turned it over so the guildmaster could see the other side. "His treasure chest at the end of it all had a note telling us as such, and this single coin."

"What will you sell it for?" The guildmaster demanded. "I would give you 10,000 gold pieces today for it!"

Vyse blinked. "Are you serious?"

"Deadly, Captain Vyse."

"Do you even have that much money in your coffers?"

"Well...no. The guild does not exactly have a full 10,000 gold pieces on the premises. Not after I just paid you for the bounty on Lapen." The guildmaster winced and came clean. "But I can draft a notice that you could redeem at our other locations on Sailor's Isle and in Maramba."

Vyse hummed and tucked the coin away. "We could use the money, but the fact is, we need the money _now_. We're still outfitting the ship, you see, and a draft notice isn't something that the Nasrians here would take. Not with their own needs as dire as they are."

"Point made." The guildmaster sighed. "Well, if you change your mind, be sure to seek me out."

"I will. I have a few other stops to make yet, but I'll stop by later today." Vyse waved to the man and headed downstairs, passing by the shopkeeper who operated on the first floor of the miraculously still-standing building and walked out.

Aika had said she'd wanted to check in with Fatima the innkeeper, and also to say hello at the tavern where she and Fina had worked for the two weeks that they'd been stranded in Nasrad. As the tavern was the closer of the two venues, he went there first, wandering inside. He found Aika up at the bar and nursing a glass of low-alcoholic cider, and looking thoroughly put-off. The reason for that was a buxom, large-figured Nasrian with sallow cheeks and torn and dirtied garments that had once been very fine, pestering the redhead.

"Please! Please, take me with you! Osman cannot stand to live in such squalor!" The woman (And it was a woman, now that Vyse got closer and could hear her voice) begged.

"Friend of yours, Aika?" Vyse asked, stepping in closer and smiling to his First Mate.

"She wishes." Aika growled out, and he could see just how badly her hackles were up. "Back when we were trying to put the money together for a ship to go looking for you, Fina and I went to see Osman here at her shop. She dismissed us as poor, dirty ship trash and threw us out of her emporium. Apparently her shop and everything she ever owned got blown apart and burned down when the Valuans sacked Nasrad, and one of her people ran off with all her money." Aika's brown eyes sparkled. "I can't say that I'm weeping over it. Osman's finally getting a taste of how the rest of us live."

"Hm." Vyse nodded, because there was a certain justice in Osman's fate. But at the same time...Well.

Blue Rogues helped out those in need. They didn't always do it for free, though. Not when the people needing the help had means. Or were jerks. Vyse raised an eyebrow as he looked at Aika, then gave a sidewards glance towards Osman.

Aika's eyes widened, and her twin tails of red hair bounced as she quickly shook her head. _No. NO!_

Vyse just grinned, and Aika groaned, leaning in towards him as she pressed her forehead to the bar. "You'd better make her work for it, _Captain."_ She grumbled softly.

"Count on it." Vyse told her, and then kissed the top of her head in apology. Aika lazily flopped a hand at him to make him back off, and Vyse straightened out his coat before turning to address Osman. "Osman, is it? You're a merchant?"

The round woman in a yellow sunhat and dark glasses came to attention, nodding once sharply in a way that made her jowls jump. "Yes! Yes I am. And you would be this Captain Vyse that everyone keeps talking about, yes? That was your ship that flew in and scared the daylights out of everyone until they learned you weren't a Valuan warship?"

"Well, it _started_ as one, but we handled the launch ourselves." Vyse said, crossing his arms. "I'm told that you gave my First Mate and our dear comrade Fina a rough time when they first arrived."

Osman paled some more, which was an achievement for the already pale-skinned woman who looked as though she hadn't felt the touch of the sun in years. "Um. Yes? I'm sorry about that?" She offered meekly. "I promise never to do that again?"

"That would appear to be impossible, since you don't have the assets or capital that made you such a tight-fisted moneylender." Vyse narrowed his gaze and turned his best glare on Osman. "Now you're the same kind of penniless hat-in-hand person that my crew came to you as. Why should Aika treat you any differently than you treated her?"

"I can be your merchant!" Osman sputtered. "Whatever you need, I know where to find it! Whoever you think you know to do business with, I know three more and I know who will give you the best price!"

"Promising." Vyse said slowly. "But not enough. If you weren't a good merchant, you wouldn't have risen as high as you did. If you want to sail with _me_, Osman, on _my_ ship? Then you're going to have to make some adjustments. Because the Code of the Blue Rogues is very clear. Blue Rogues _always_ help those in need. And you won't be in it for yourself. You'll be a member of the crew, paid the same as the rest. You're going to have work harder than others, because right now? I don't like you. And Aika and Fina sure as hell don't like you."

Osman swallowed. Vyse didn't blink or look away from her.

"Well?" He demanded. "If any of that's a deal-breaker, you'd better tell me now."

Osman swallowed again, looked from Vyse to Aika, who'd propped herself up onto an elbow and was staring at the both of them with a blank, waiting expression.

The middle-aged woman must have settled something in her heart, because she straightened up again and mustered a serious expression. "I imagine that you came ashore to get provisioned."

"Somewhat." Vyse conceded.

"Then we don't have any time to waste." Osman said crisply, stepping past Vyse and walking for the door. "Come on, you two. If we're to have any hope of saving you gold you can't afford to waste, it's high time you got a proper lesson in bartering in Nasrad from a master of the haggle." She kept on going even as Vyse and Aika looked at one another, then Osman turned and stared at them both. "Consider this my job application. Now scurry scurry, children."

"You'd better be right about her, Vyse." Aika grumbled, finishing off her cider and pushing herself away from the bar.

"Worst case scenario, we'll drop her off in Maramba." Vyse shrugged, and the two followed after her.

* * *

Osman, whose first name was Rabina, turned out to be a merchant beyond peer. She knew of every merchant in Nasrad, and more importantly, had a knowledge of the market prices on everything that Vyse and Aika had needed to procure, from lugnuts to lodaberry jam. Her skill at lowering prices down beyond unreasonable to merely the victim of supply and demand was just as impressive as Vyse had hoped it would be, especially once she started hawking about how everything was going to "Captain Vyse, scourge of the Valuan Empire!" That Vyse was paying in good coin and hadn't invaded or attacked had certainly helped her sales pitch. She even knew which of the tailors and seamstresses would be able, and willing, to leave Nasrad for an extended period of time to sign on with the crew. After all, while the _Delphinus_ didn't require sails, there were plenty of linens, clothes, and _ship's flags_ to be sewn.

By the end of it, they found themselves on the docks, splitting a plate of kebabs between them under the shade of a hastily erected tent as what seemed to be fully half of the merchants and their workers and the surviving harbor freight crews busily kept up the work. With so few ships in harbor, the _Delphinus_ had finally been brought into a proper berthing, making it easier to transfer and load supplies into the ship through the multiple hatches that led belowdecks. Bolts of fabric that had been flown in from Maramba (And Vyse was sure he'd seen at least one carpet which had been tagged as a _Larso original_, which was encouraging for little Rupee's new career) were the next thing being led up the ramp, with Enrique and Fina supervising the crews coming aboard while Vyse and Aika watched from shore. There again, Osman's talent proved vital. She knew which crews were trustworthy; two had been outright refused and led away once she explained that loads they handled tended to usually be shorted. The other concern Vyse had was possible spies trying to sneak aboard, but between Enrique, Fina, and Marco, they were keeping an accurate headcount.

"So. Do I pass?" Osman asked, savoring the meal along with a pot of sweetened air-temperature tea. She seemed much brighter after a decent meal.

"I'm warming up to you." Vyse hedged his answer, looking over to Aika. "You definitely know your contacts here in Nasrad. But how about when we need to do business in Maramba? Or Sailor's Isle? Or what if we go somewhere that you've never been before? That nobody from Mid-Ocean ever has?"

"I can put on a warm face and lie with the best of them, you know."

"I'm aware." Vyse said flatly. "But what I'm more concerned about is whether or not you can speak to people you've never met with graciousness and _mean it."_

"Ah." Osman looked away, humming to herself. "As needs must. A part of your Code, captain?"

"Informal." Vyse replied. "For now."

Vyse hurried through his meal and dove back out into the sunlight, supervising the loading process with his authoritative air of command. They were getting some additional high-grade pipes and wiring aboard to complete the loadout when a loud shout from behind drew his attention back to the port. Vyse flinched and then sighed as the Nasrad sailor's guildmaster came racing down the stone ramp to catch up to him.

"Guildmaster." He greeted the old man politely. "You have good timing. We were just finishing up our business here in Nasrad and making ready to leave."

The old fellow was a little winded, but he bowed to buy time as he sucked in air and then clasped his hands together. "I was hoping to try and convince you to part with Daccat's Coin again before you left."

"Why are you so eager to claim it?" Vyse asked him, a little exasperated.

"It is said that Daccat was Nasrian." The guildmaster explained. "Now, more than ever, we need symbols and heroes for the people of Nasrad to rally behind. Giving them his Coin, putting it on display? I offer you a ransom for it. To our people, it is priceless." The guildmaster looked at Vyse. "What does the coin mean to you, beyond a story to be told?"

Vyse reached for Daccat's Coin, still in his pocket, and let his thumb trace over the surface of the long-dead air pirate's emblem. As he did, he turned his head to look at Aika, his oldest friend, his most trusted companion, his strong right arm. She was still over by Osman, arguing about something, and she was as beautiful as always. That he could tell her that at last made him smile to think of it. When he turned and looked up at the _Delphinus_, and saw Fina up on the foredeck directing traffic with her pleasant smile and quiet authority, his smile only widened.

"To me, Daccat's coin is a reminder about what he really valued. About what was worth sailing for." Vyse explained, shaking his head and looking back to the guildmaster. "And that lesson, being able to remember it, is worth a lot to me."

"Worth more than 10,000 gold pieces?" The guildmaster pressed.

That, of course, drew Osman in with Aika trailing behind her, dripping with exasperation. The woman could _smell_ money. "Pardon me, captain, but did I overhear the guildmaster here offering you 10,000 gold marks for something?"

"Daccat's Coin, milady Osman." The guildmaster bowed. "But my business is with him, not with you."

She huffed and drew herself up. "With my shop destroyed, I have signed on as a member of Captain Vyse's crew. His business _is_ my business in matters of finance." The guildmaster didn't seem convinced, and he looked to Vyse for confirmation.

The Blue Rogue shrugged. "For the moment, she's correct. He wishes to purchase Daccat's Coin from me." He went on to explain the details, and Osman hummed thoughtfully, her sun hat bouncing every so often as she nodded along.

At the end of it, she pointed between them. "You wish to keep it as a memento and a reminder of what you learned braving Daccat's labyrinth, correct captain?" Vyse nodded. "And the guildmaster wishes to own it to inspire the people of Nasrad. It occurs to me there is a way to see you both satisfied, especially since the guildmaster cannot draft together all the money he would need to buy it from you directly."

"Oh?" Vyse said, curious. "Go on, then."

"He can keep the original. But in exchange, he will have to make you a replacement, along with the rest of the money. We can consider it interest for his immediate purchase of the coin." Osman smiled past her glasses, and even with her eyes hidden, there was a viper's presence about her. "But there is a way this can benefit Nasrad even more than with a rallying cry. A financial benefit. Tell me, captain, have you thought about commissioning a coin of your own?"

Vyse blinked several times, and glanced over to Aika for a moment to ground himself. She looked back, cocked her head to the side, and then stared at Osman as well. Vyse cleared his throat.

"How so, Osman? And why?"

"May I see Daccat's Coin, please?" The merchant asked politely. With some trepidation, Vyse dug it out and set it in her palm, and she hummed as she examined it. "A coin has two sides, you know. Let Daccat's emblem sit on one side...and leave the other side for your own." She handed it back. "This is my suggestion. The guildmaster pays you what he can today. You give him the coin. In exchange, he will provide work to the artisans and forgers and minters of Nasrad and provide you not just with one coin, but one hundred." Osman smirked. "You believe the lesson of Daccat is worth remembering, yes? Then have the guildmaster be responsible for the production of enough of them so that every member of your crew will carry one. It will take work and contracting after we leave, but the next time we make port here, he will have to make good on his delivery. It would be a simple enough matter for him to get in touch with the seamstresses here in Nasrad that are not coming along; The shop made a copy of the pattern for future commissions." The idea did have some merit, Vyse thought. A coin for every member of his crew? With enough in extras to handle anybody else they might bring aboard?

"A sizeable agreement." The guildmaster muttered. "Doable, although it will take time to put together."

"With your permission, captain, I would be happy to draft a contract to that effect...with penalties should the guildmaster _not_ come through on his end of the bargain."

"Reasonable terms, Osman, not outlandish ones." Vyse sighed. "I don't want his firstborn."

Her face squinted up a bit, but she nodded. "As you wish."

In all, it took her just thirty minutes to pen out a contract, and another 20 to make a duplicate. After Vyse and the guildmaster reviewed it, they signed both copies, with the guildmaster keeping one and Vyse the other, and Vyse handed over the coin.

"You take care of that now." He warned the older man.

The guildmaster gave him a sack of money and sighed. "As if I would do anything less. I'm not certain when we'll see you again, captain, but I have much to do before your return."

Aika sidled up beside Vyse, smirking. "We'll say farewell for now, then." The guildmaster bowed and headed off back into Nasrad, the coin safely tucked away along with the contract.

Osman hummed happily. "So. Do I pass?"

Vyse looked to Aika, seeking her permission. Aika sighed and rolled her eyes.

"You're still on probation, Osman. Get on the damn ship."

Osman smiled, looking far too pleased with herself. "As you say, First Mate Aika." She sauntered off for one of the gangplanks, and Aika gave Vyse a stare.

"I'm not administering the Oath to her."

"I'll do it." Vyse placated her. "May as well take care of her along with Khazim and all of his men. I wonder how many gunnery mates came along with him?"

"Around a dozen or so. Fina will have the accurate numbers in her manifest." Aika replied, and the two started for the _Delphinus._ "We'd better hurry on to your island. Brabham and Izmael have to be getting tired of just sitting around and burning through their supplies."

They probably were, Vyse had to admit. Luckily, the _Delphinus_ would get them there by midday tomorrow if they left now.

Say what you would about the Valuans, but they definitely knew how to build a ship.

* * *

_Crescent Island_

_121 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Brabham and Izmael had been called 'old' by Gilder, and the air pirate who was just a shade short of flying under the banner of the Blue Rogues had said that the pair were looking for a challenge to 'round out' their careers. After finding the pair three sheets to the wind on rum and in no danger of scurvy from the wild citrus fruits that grew on the island, Vyse was beginning to question if Gilder just had a talent for understatement. Brabham was skinny as a rail, wiry in the way that made him seem like bones more than solid muscle, but the bald and blond-bearded sailor claimed to be _147 years old. _It was a claim that Izmael, the short and stout-framed master carpenter and builder, repeated as well.

"I didn't think people could live that long." Aika said faintly as their crew raced off of the docked _Delphinus_ with happy shouts (and barking, as Pow chased after Marco and Pinta).

"Healthy living and a zest for life! Ba-baaam!" Izmael grinned, spinning in place with a wobble that his alcohol-tinted cheeks betrayed the cause of.

The taller Brabham guffawed at that and tugged at his beard. "There's nothing healthy about the way you eat, you fat old coot!" He complained in a raspy, asthmatic voice.

"Bah! You've been calling me fat for a hundred years, Brabby, I would have thought that you'd come up with something original by now!" Izmael scowled, pointing at his comrade with a wooden mallet. Their act made Fina giggle into her hand, and even Enrique coughed to hide a chuckle as he adjusted his beret.

"Uh, fellas." Vyse cut in, coughing once. "As entertaining as the two of you are, could we maybe focus on how you've been doing? We were beginning to get worried that we were cutting it close, leaving you out here this long."

"Aah, it's all right." Brabham waved off his concern. "Captain Gilder figgered you'd take your time, what with the increased Valuan patrols and all."

"Patrols?" Vyse frowned. "What's been going on?"

"Well, don't know if you've heard captain, but the Nasrian Home Fleet wasn't by Nasrad when the Valuans burned it down. They scattered to the winds afterwards, but a couple days after the Valuans were all focused on your escape from the Grand Fortress, the Nasrian fleet started to put itself back together again. Gilder and Clara had to evade a couple of pickets to drop us off here."

Vyse looked over to Aika and Fina with a concerned frown, and Enrique spoke up while Vyse was still thinking.

"There was no sign of a military presence in Nasrad. With the Nasultan dead, they may have decided for a policy of roaming interference. It's the smart play; Any concentrated attack or siege would just prompt a larger counterattack by the Armada."

"Did I hear you say Gilder and _Clara?"_ Aika asked the old ship's engineer, flabbergasted. "I thought that womanizing pirate didn't want to have anything to do with her. Which is his loss, really, because she was way too good for him!"

Izmael chuckled. "Well, it was just plain weird. After the captain left your ship and came back aboard, we was all expecting for him to give the order to hoist anchor and raise the mainsails like always. But instead, he told us to hold fast, and some hours later while we were all still drinking and celebrating, Captain Clara came over from the _Primrose_ and went down to his stateroom." Izmael grinned. "We didn't see neither of 'em until the next morning, and she was _glowing_ after. And the captain actually looked _happy_ for once!"

Vyse laughed under his breath. "Good for them. He actually listened to me."

"You set them up, Vyse?" Aika demanded, while Fina looked at Vyse with a warm and approving nod.

"I just reminded Captain Gilder that she wasn't always going to chase after him." Vyse told them all, glancing between Aika and Fina and smiling back at them. "From what you ladies told me, Clara is a wonderful woman. All he needed was a good hard shake to be reminded of that. To become the man she deserved."

Aika and Fina each slipped an arm around the other and pressed their waists and sides together as they blushed and looked back at him. They never said a word, and he heard them regardless.

"In any case." Vyse went on, clearing his throat and turning back to Brabham and Izmael before anyone caught him making moonfaces at his lovers and started asking questions. "You've had the run of the island for a while now, Izmael. What do you think? Can we turn this into a home base worthy of the Blue Rogues?"

"Ab-so-lutely, Cap'n Vyse." Izmael grinned, hefting his hammer over one shoulder. "What you have here is a marvelous specimen of nature, with pre-existing tunnels inside of a stable mountain complex I can expand in from. With enough funds and time, I can not only put together an underground base big enough to fit that whale of a ship you've got, but I can stack up a proper compound here on the surface and give you an overlook higher up in the mountain so you can have a bird's eye view of it all. There's enough materials here, especially with what I'll be hollowing out, to make everything you'll need to make port and relax."

"You'll have that time." Vyse promised him. "After this, we sail for Ixa'taka, through the Southern Ocean until we reach Maramba...and then we're going for the Dark Rift."

Brabham and Izmael shivered as their eager smiles disappeared along with their inebriation. "You aren't joking." Brabham uttered.

"No." Vyse shook his head. "Not about this. Not about traveling into the unknown. On the other side of the Dark Rift are the lands under the Blue Moon. Our goal is to collect all of the Moon Crystals across Arcadia before the Valuan admiralty can. That's our next stop."

Brabham drew in a breath and let it out slowly as he looked past them and up towards the _Delphinus._ "In that case, I've got my work cut out for me. Captain Gilder gave me a rundown of what you'd need; reinforced deck plating and a hull treatment so you'd be able to make it through stone reefs, and I'll be working on your engines. Your ship is the top of the line for what the Valuans can make. With some tweaks, you'll be able to fly through sky rifts just like they did to come after Nasrad. I know the technique behind it, I've just never had a powerful enough ship to manage it."

"I'll be working with you on that." Aika told the old man. "And we've got another engineer on the crew, at least until Ixa'taka, who will be helping us."

"Many hands make light work." Brabham wheezed cheerfully. "I hope you're not going anywhere for a few days, captain. Work like this, you don't want to rush."

"Take your time and get it done right." Vyse told him. "Use anyone on my crew you need. Everyone else will either be helping out Izmael with the early stages of turning Crescent Island into our stronghold or getting the rest of the _Delphinus_ ready for its first real voyage."

"With some time to relax as well though, right, captain?" Fina asked politely, shifting her hand ever so gently against Aika's waist. A breeze passing by them all was particularly well-timed, because it hid Aika's shiver at the Silvite's touch.

Vyse coughed once and deliberately looked away from the red and blonde-haired duet, fixing a grin at Enrique.

"Well, naturally. And I could use some practice with my swordplay."

"If you're serious about becoming good enough to stand against Ramirez, Vyse, I will have to train you to be even deadlier than me." The prince in exile told him.

"Then I have something to aim for."

"Just don't work him over too hard, Enrique!" Aika cut in merrily. "Vyse isn't any good to us if he's too exhausted to fulfill his other duties!"

Vyse coughed again at that and excused himself, moving to check in with the rest of the crew. Aika's remark and Fina's subtle suggestive teases seemed perfectly innocent on the surface. They were doing it to egg him on, he just knew it. To see how far they could go before he either gave something away or blurted it all out. Not that Fina or Aika particularly cared what anybody else thought about their relationship, now that they'd cleared the air with his mother, although they'd agreed to at least not scream it from the rooftops.

Luckily, he had at least a few _days_ to think of a way to get back at them before they sailed off again…

Vyse smirked as he went from a jog to a saunter, thinking of the possibilities. He was a _Rogue_ after all…

* * *

_128 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Delphinus Bridge_

_Crescent Island_

The _Delphinus_ was a mighty ship, but for all the promise and potential that it held, it hadn't felt like it was his until now after the refit. When he'd stood outside on Crescent Island's outlook and stared up at the mighty ship hovering above it, there had been a tremendous sense of pride in his crew, and in the vessel that they had all worked so hard to get ready for the rest of the voyage. And nothing made it seem more like his ship than the new paint scheme. Where once royal Valuan purple had graced the sleek lines of the mighty battleship, Blue Rogue's blue had taken its place. It had taken every speck of paint that his father had provided him a week ago and more, but it had been worth it. Now with the paint dried and a protective lacquer overcoat in place, there would be no mistaking it as a Valuan warship even at a distance.

Just as he had hoped, the bridge now sported chairs with safety belts for every station save the helm. The captain's chair was even more impressive, with thicker padding than the others and higher backed with armrests.

Laurence stood at the helm, his arms folded and his eyes hooded with his usual unimpressed posture. Fina was at his side, hovering next to the electrically augmented communication speaking tubes that connected the bridge to every other portion of the ship. Enrique was sitting at the map table, but he stood up as Vyse walked through the hatch and strolled into the ship's command center.

"Captain on the bridge." Prince Enrique said, smiling. "Welcome aboard, sir."

"Good to be aboard." Vyse replied. Then he looked over to Fina, who shyly brushed her hair back behind her ear and under her veil as she couldn't even meet his eyes. Of course, given how he'd found the girls that morning in their tent, and how he'd woken _her_ up after first stoking Aika's fires…

"Have all stations reported in?" He asked, clearing his throat and moving to sit in the captain's chair, adjusting himself subtly as he did so.

"Osman has taken up residence in a corner of the dining hall, and Polly reports all foodstores are ready for transit." Fina answered him, rattling off the reports she had likely been gathering from all over the ship through the communication lines. "Khazim is at the fire control station belowdecks in the bow, and the twelve men who came with him have sorted themselves out into three-man squads for each of the four turrets. We have torpedoes loaded in all the launch tubes, and 250 shells of standard ammunition; half armor-piercing and half incendiary. Nasrad supplied us with another 50 shells of high-grade Moonstone shells for magical combat, and Khazim has dispersed them equally between the turret loading bays."

"Good." Vyse nodded, already feeling better about their chances. "The Moonstone Cannon?"

"Still a work in progress, captain, but it is online and ready to fire." Fina reported, finally looking frustrated. "Further upgrades and enhancements did not take precedent over other ship upgrades."

"Speaking of Aika…" Vyse drawled, "Fina, how did Brabham fare with her and Lapen on putting the _Delphinus_ back to rights?"

"Ah, one moment. She wrote this down for me…" Fina said, summoning up Cupil and having him cough out a notepad that she flipped through. "Reinforced plating was installed prior to the repainting, and the reciprocating engines are now fully tuned and sequenced with each other. They've added diversionary piping from the moonstone reactors to bleed off excess steam power into the maneuvering spinners during high turbulence as well. Before he disembarked to help Izmael with continuing to work on our island base, Brabham said that we'd 'eat any sky rift aside from the Dark Rift for breakfast.' We can cross every major boundary in Mid-Ocean now without difficulty."

"A good start. Thanks, Fina." Vyse chuckled. "Enrique. How much do we have left in the coffers?"

"Perhaps 1,800 gold." Enrique said woefully. "We'll need to find some additional sources of income to cover incidental expenses we might incur on the rest of our transit to Ixa'taka and Maramba afterwards. But the _Delphinus _is fully kitted out and supplied. Miss Aika and Engineer Lapen should be able to handle any minor repairs, provided nobody blows a hole through the ship or makes us lose a propellor shaft."

"We'll be all right, Enrique." Vyse reassured him. "Blue Rogues may find refuge in audacity, but nobody lives long sailing who isn't cautious."

"I'm encouraged." Enrique quipped, turning back to the map table. "The barometer indicates clear skies for our dogleg up into The Frontier Lands, at least. I just hope Illchymis is home when we get there. Assuming we find his home." Enrique laughed under his breath. "I recall the unflappable Lord Galcian actually becoming piqued at reports that the scouts sent to retrieve Ilchymis could not locate him."

"Galcian isn't used to being told no, is he?" Fina asked coyly.

"If he is, it's more in the spirit of _'please no, stop, don't kill me."_ Vyse snarked. He motioned to Fina as he stood up. "Call up engineering for us, would you Fina?"

"Aye, captain." The Silvite hummed, turning back to the communication tubes and quickly getting to work. Aika's voice sounded through the bridge's intercoms a few seconds later.

_"Engineering. First Mate Aika speaking."_

"Hello, Aika." Vyse greeted her. "Are we ready to take off?"

_"Fina gave you the report, didn't she?"_ Aika asked.

"She did. But I wasn't asking about the ship just now."

_"Oh." _Aika took a moment to collect herself. _"I have Lapen watching the moonstone reactor and the steam lines. He's going to go off duty here in a few hours so he can cover the night shift. And about me being ready...Yes, captain. I was _born_ to do this."_

"Yes, you were." Vyse all but purred as she lived in her confidence. "I'm sounding the take-off alarm. Go ahead and hoist the anchor and ready the maneuvering spinners for departure."

_"Aye-aye." _She chuckled, and killed the connection.

Vyse leaned back in the captain's chair and folded a fist into his other hand, then leaned his chin on them. "Fina, if you would. All stations." The Silvite quickly flipped the necessary toggles, and soon the entire _Delphinus_ was wired for sound.

"All hands, this is the captain. We're leaving Crescent Island behind and sailing north into the Frontier Lands to look for another crewmember. Consider it a test run for the next leg of our voyage when we'll be flying right through Valua's backyard. You've all taken the Oath when you joined up, you know what we're fighting for, and what the stakes are. Some of you have years of experience, and some of you are fresh to the skies. Rely on each other. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Do your part to render assistance. There are no menial jobs on board an airship; they're all important." Vyse paused for effect. "You gave me your Oath. I give you my word. I will never ask you to do anything I haven't done, or won't do myself. May the Moons bless us." He made a gesture to Fina, and she closed the intercom lines.

"Crewman Laurence? You have the helm." Vyse told the stoic sailor in purple. "Set a course due north until we clear the bend of the Valuan continent, and then head west along the continental ridge."

Laurence nodded and took his place, setting one hand on the wheel as he checked the readings. "Anchors are hoisted." He reported calmly. "We are floating clear. Moving ahead at one quarter maneuvering speed."

There was something majestic about a ship leaving port, Vyse thought. He'd always been impressed as a child, watching the wooden merchant vessels pull away from Windmill Isle after selling their wares and collecting the dried Sky Sardis that the fishermen offered in trade. The first time that he and Aika had been allowed to come along on a trip to Sailor's Isle, he had spent hours down at the dock, enraptured at the sight of ship after ship coming in and then going back out again.

None of that could top the feeling, the electric thrill of sitting in the captain's chair of his very own ship, painted in his colors and bearing his flag as it pulled away. The mountain that overlooked the island slowly disappeared, leaving Brabham and Izmael to see to the rest of the island's construction, and their safe harbor slipped behind them as they sailed into the distance. Vyse didn't feel sadness or trepidation like others would have.

He only felt excitement for what lay ahead of them.

Vyse was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Fina coming back away from the front of the bridge and sliding in to sit on the armrest of his chair, not until the flash of her white and silver dress caught his eye.

Vyse had always thought of the open skies, the allure of the unknown as being his true home. It had been his dream for years, the thing that kept him going as he learned all the scutwork and minutiae of running and maintaining a sailing vessel no matter how irritating they were.

"We're ready for this, Vyse." Fina said softly, a whisper just audible enough for his ears alone. Her hand came up and came to rest on his elbow. His other hand came up to cover hers, and his fingers sought out the spaces between her own. Unseen by Laurence or Enrique, her hand turned over and her palm pressed into his.

"I know we are." He whispered back to her as he closed his eyes and just felt the warmth of her hand and the pulse in her wrist against his own, and was tempted to pull her over the armrest and into his lap entirely. He resisted by the barest shred of lingering decency, and by thinking of what his mother would say. So he just held Fina's hand in his own, their fingers intertwined, and slowly leaned over until his head rested against the side of her torso.

For years, his dream had been of traveling the world, exploring the unknown, seeing the things that nobody else had ever seen.

Fina hummed the notes to some unfamiliar melody as the _Delphinus_ came up to speed and headed north. Vyse smiled and let the sky and her voice and her presence all blur together as he thought of Aika belowdecks, who held the other half of his heart to match the piece he'd given to Fina.

His dreams were only complete because of them.

* * *

_The Frontier Lands_

_The Nasrian Home Fleet_

_Admiral Komullah's Flagship, __The Dunebreaker_

_129 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Admiral Bast Komullah had taken command of the Home Fleet five years ago, to high accolades and well wishes from others in the Nasrian Navy. He had cut his teeth in command as a captain, serving as one of the few ships that had managed to strike telling blows against the Valuans during the war 20 years prior. While capable of audacity, it was his talent for holding back, reading the battlefield, and then maneuvering his opponents into just the right position to be shot down that had made him famous. Before his promotion, he had served on the frontier in charge of a flotilla of pickets and sentries that guarded the far northern borders of their territory, and had earned the nickname of 'The Patient Admiral'.

Being given command of the Home Fleet, the last and greatest line of defense against both Valuan aggression and nefarious air pirates who liked to prowl the South Danel Strait had been the pinnacle of his career. It had been his dream to stand as the bulwark protecting Nasrad from its enemies. He had assumed he'd spend 10 years in the role, living out his late middle ages before retiring comfortably at the age of 60 to return home and perhaps find a wife at last.

The surprise attack of the Valuans through the North Danel Strait had never entered his mind as a possibility, because no ship had ever been able to survive travel through the sky rifts. By the time word came of the attack on Nasrad, he and the Home Fleet had been north, expecting the attack from the continent proper. There had been nothing he could do for his precious home city, or for his Nasultan. There had been nothing to do at all except to flee, and draw the attention of the Valuans away from Nasrad so his people might be able to rebuild in peace. Even though it made his warrior's spirit burn in shame. Even though the captains serving under him had begged to race headlong into battle, regardless of the fact it was sheer suicide.

For weeks now, he had led the Valuan forces in a deadly game of cat and mouse, using the familiarity of the terrain and the skies built up from his early days as the advantage to keep him and the surviving remnant of the Home Fleet one step ahead of their pursuers. He would strike at them where they least expected it, and then used the islands and the erratic weather to make his retreat. Flying through storms was hard on their ships, but not nearly as hard as a full-out engagement would be.

But the Valuans were persistent, and seemed to have finally wised up to his tactics. They had stationed scouts and pickets along every possible avenue of escape in advance of his latest ambush, and cut off his retreat, forcing the fleet out into the open skies. They were done playing his game.

The _Dunebreaker_ rattled under the impact of another heavy shell, nearly throwing him forward and over the rail. "Damage report!" He called out, his voice already hoarse from shouting over one too many other such incidents in the disaster of this engagement.

"We took a shell amidships, it's started a fire in the mess. Fire crews are enroute!" The ship's status officer called back.

"Damn the Valuans." Komullah growled out. "How about the rest of the fleet?"

"All damaged sir, from light to heavy." The captain of the _Dunebreaker_ answered, looking at him with a grave face. "I think this might be the end, admiral. Should I order all hands to abandon ship?"

Admiral Komullah closed his eyes for two seconds, reflecting on it. "Our men have been brave. For it to come to this...Signal the Valuans that we are surrendering. Raise our altitude so our men have enough time to get to the lifeboats and launch safely."

The _Dunebreaker_ lined up the signal flags and started to rise up higher into the sky, cresting over the small islands that dotted the Frontier Lands. The order to abandon ship had just been ordered when the next salvo of shells smashed into the already battered hull, and this time Komullah swore up a blue streak.

"Those damned Valuans! Didn't they see our signal flags?!"

"They did, sir!" His captain shouted back, because the wailing of the alarms had increased. "They're firing any…" He paused, cupping a hand over his ear and the intership communicator before his face darkened. "An answering flag from the lead Valuan ship, sir. _No Quarter._ They mean to wipe us out to the last man."

Komullah seethed. "Honorless _dogs."_ He rasped. "Turn us towards the sun. Perhaps we can blind them and give our men enough of a chance to escape. Pass the order on!"

Wounded and failing, the _Dunebreaker_ slowly turned up into the early evening sunset, trailing smoke and belching fire from the holes in its hull. Komullah stayed on the bridge with the captain as the rest of the bridge crew made a retreat for the lifeboats, determined to give them the best possible chance of escape and survival. If they could make it to the boats, if they could fly their boats away from the Valuans and into the dotted islands, they might have a chance. It was his duty to give them that chance, at the cost of his own life. Komullah had lived a long life, fought for most of it, forswearing love and a chance at family for his duty. He had nothing left to lose. It made the decision easy.

And yet…

And yet, he didn't look back at the ships of death flying up behind him, but ahead and into the burning sunset, which burned at his eyes until a dark spot appeared and grew larger, lingering near a cloud that had partially covered it.

A dark spot that gained definition, a shape.

Komullah blinked. It couldn't be. And yet?

"Captain?" He said slowly. "What do you see there? In the sun?"

The _Dunebreaker's_ captain squinted against the sunlight. "Another ship, sir? Another Valuan picket?"

"It couldn't be. They arranged their pickets to keep us from disappearing into the islands and to force us into the open. Why would they bother stationing one at a distance?" The admiral glowered. "No, it…"

And then the ship _turned_, ever so slightly, and even at nautical miles off, the shape of it in three-quarters profile made it clear that it was no normal wooden sailing vessel, or a merchant ship, or a Nasrian military ship coming towards them at high speed. No, that construction could only be for a ship designed out of metal. And the shape of it was one familiar to Komullah, based on the few reports of the Valuan strike force that sacked Nasrad.

"Hell!" He swore, and then the ship was bearing towards them. "Evasive! Evasive!" He shouted, even as he and the captain turned the wheel and worked the controls to dive down hard and turn away from it.

It had been his dream to command this fleet.

It appeared to be his destiny to see it die as well.

* * *

_The Frontier Lands _

_The Delphinus, Bridge_

They smelled the battle on the horizon before they saw it. Black powder gunsmoke was thick and cloying, full of noxious sulphur after it went off, and thicker than rainclouds before it dispersed. And for as good as the pressure seals were inside of the _Delphinus,_ the air filters that piped in fresh air from the outside weren't quite able to scrub all the stink out of it by the time it reached the bridge.

Vyse dug his fingers into the armrest of the captain's chair, then pushed himself up and out of it. "Battle Stations." He ordered quietly, already moving to the helm. Laurence glanced at him.

"You want the wheel?"

"I'd feel better if I were, yes." Vyse said. Laurence let go of the wheel and stepped back, gesturing for Vyse to take hold of the spokes. For Vyse, the transition from passenger to the man guiding the whole of the ship was as natural as breathing. More natural, really. He was used to feeling in control when things got hairy, as he had when the _Little Jack_ had faced Recumen and Grendel and the best that the Armada could throw at him over the Great Nasrian Desert and the burning jungles of Ixa'taka.

There was a prickling sensation on the back of his neck now, a mariner's sixth sense that said whatever they were headed for was something dangerous.

Aboard the _Delphinus_ in every other compartment, the normal lighting dimmed as red lamps kicked on, and a droning klaxon kicked on. In the bridge, there was no need for it.

At the communications station, Fina raised her head up after a minute. "Captain? All stations report ready."

"Inform them we've picked up the trail of a ship-to-ship engagement. A very large one, based on the smell." Vyse said, turning the telemotor and reducing altitude to turn and duck down in behind one of the small islands that dotted the Frontier Lands north of Crescent Island. "Enrique. What's our position?"

"Approximately 100 kilometers from Daccat's Island, based on our updated map from your log entries." The former prince declared, already buckled in at the map table. "There's nothing of note in the immediate area."

And yet, there were ships fighting here. Vyse squinted his eyes and then reached for the engine order telegraph, dialing it back from full ahead to slow ahead, roughly a quarter of normal running speed. The _Delphinus_ quieted quickly as Aika made the adjustment down in engineering, and their course around the island slowed.

"Times like this I really wish we had a dedicated lookout." Vyse said to himself. "Or four." Slowly, they worked around the island until they could get a clear look on the other side.

Vyse didn't even shout a command once he laid eyes on the situation; he just pulled back on the EOT from slow ahead to full stop and then reverse, his hands gripping the wheel tightly. "Eyes in the skies, people. Find us a good, thick patch of clouds now."

They'd stumbled headlong into a running gun battle between the missing Nasrian Home Fleet and a full complement of Valuan warships. With any luck, nobody had spotted them during the brief pop-out maneuver. But Vyse wasn't about to take any chances.

Superior warship or not, he wasn't racing headlong into that furball, not when there was a safer option to intercede. He reached over and activated the toggle to let him communicate with the gunnery control center forward and belowdecks. "Khazim? How do you and your men stand?"

_"We stand at the ready, captain. Who are we fighting?"_

"You're getting your fondest wish, Khazim. We're taking the fight to the Valuans to save your people." Vyse smiled grimly. He then flipped the master toggle, giving him access to the whole of the ship. "All hands, this is the captain. We've come across a Valuan war party attacking what is likely the last of the Nasrian Home Fleet. Since it's happened in the Frontier Lands, which is basically our backyard, I'm of a mind to take offense to it."

He looked around the bridge, fixing in on Enrique, and then Fina. The prince looked at him with hard understanding; Fina, with approving warmth. Then he turned and looked to Laurence, who was sizing him up as if still trying to make the measure of the man.

Let him try. Vyse was still deciding who he was for himself.

"We're Blue Rogues. All of you have taken the Oath, agreed to live and work and sail under the Code of the Blue Rogues. And one part of that code is, _Blue Rogues Always Help Out Those In Need._ Well. There's a fleet full of Nasrians who need us right now to help save them. A lot of you have reasons to hate Valua's military. Our chief gunner, Khazim, and his entire crew, are _aching_ for a fight. We could turn and run, leave this fight and pretend we're not a part of it. If we were Black Pirates, that's what we would do. But we're not. We're Blue Rogues, and we live by the Code. Blue Rogues never give up. And Blue Rogues Fly Free."

"Blue Rogues Fly Free!" Fina called out, her voice low, but strong.

_"Blue Rogues Fly Free!" _Aika screamed over the ship's intercom, from the depths of the engine room.

_"Blue Rogues Fly Free!"_ Came Marco's tiny, squeaking voice from wherever he was. Those four words were repeated half a dozen more times by a dozen more voices, and then it rose to a chant that made Vyse's heart swell with pride. He had chosen his crew well. And he wasn't done recruiting them yet.

Vyse gestured to Laurence. "You have the conn, Helmsman Laurence." He gestured up to a cloudbank high in altitude close to them.

The ship's pilot raised an eyebrow again as he came over and traded places with Vyse, already moving the engines up to a higher speed and turning the wheel while he moved the toggle that would raise their altitude. "What are you going to do, captain?"

"I have a weapon to charge." Vyse winked at him, gesturing to Fina as he approached the two silvery orbs jutting on reinforced struts at the Moonstone Cannon access panel. The Silvite stirred and came over, searching his face.

"It's too much for you! I haven't had any time to make adjustments with Aika yet…" She began to protest, and stopped when Vyse pressed a fingertip to her lips, her soft blue eyes widening at the tenderness in his touch.

"We do this together, Fina. I don't want you collapsing on me again and sleeping for hours. And I know you don't want me doing that." He pulled his hand away from her lips, winked at her, and then set a hand down on one of the charging orbs. With an answering smile and a soft blush, Fina took the other, then grabbed his free hand with her own, completing the circuit between the two of them and the ship. Vyse immediately felt a low thrumming passing through him, and…

_Oh._

He felt Fina pressing in on his mind, and when he opened himself up to her, he gasped to suddenly feel everything she did. The whole of the ship, the empty moonstone reservoir in the heart of the ship's main weapon that hungered for spiritual energy. The heartbeats, the pulse of life from every crewmember aboard, and how of them, Fina's and Aika's shone the strongest, as if answering the pulse of his own existence.

"Is this what it's like for you?" He whispered, awed and humbled. "Is this how the world feels to you, Fina?"

"When I try." She answered softly, and he felt a wave of trust, love, _love_ from her and from Aika as Fina guided his strength into the heart of the ship. "A priestess of the Silver Shrine learns to listen and feel for the pulse of life. Until we master it, no spell of life, no spell of death can ever be flawless."

Meaning that every other magic user in the whole of Arcadia who used silver magic had it wrong. Was doing it wrong, casting magic with an imperfect understanding of its guiding principles.

**"Enough."** Fina chastised him, and guided his focus to the waiting capacitors. She fed a trickle of her power into it, and then nudged at him until his own followed it.

Their spiritual energy flowed out of them like two streams becoming a river, and poured into the ship. The _Delphinus_ stirred to wakefulness as it flew up into the skies, slowly removing the shackles from its dread power. And through it all, Vyse could swear he still heard the chanting of his crew, timed to the pulse of all the lives aboard.

Blue Rogues Fly Free.

* * *

_The Dunebreaker_

_Bridge_

The metal ship careened past them on a course that would have brought it close, but would have not resulted in a collision if they hadn't moved in time. There was the flash of gunmetal and silver and an unusual blue, and a light more blinding than the sun from the front of it, where the hull opened like a jaw to reveal a horrendous monster of a cannon barrel…

And then the sky _burned_ with blue white firelight as the ship passing them fired, and Komullah spun to look out the reinforced rear lighting panel, back in the direction of the Valuan fleet and his own scattering forces.

The new ship had unleashed a terrifying beam of pure destructive light and fury. Missing every ship of the surviving Home Fleet, it carved a swath of death into the Valuan ships, gutting three of them in the light of that death beam and cleaving them into pieces. When the beam finally died down, the ship opened up with a blistering array of cannonfire and torpedo launches that bordered on reckless, raining power down on the scattering Valuan warships.

Komullah snapped himself out of his daze, spinning the wheel and nudging the captain. "Rescind the order to abandon ship! I don't know who's on board that ship, but they've given us a chance here! Raise all the flags and order them to counterattack with everything we've got!"

The captain, as shaken as he was, nonetheless grinned and recovered. "Yes sir, admiral!" It was a credit to his training how quickly he raced to carry out the orders, and within a minute, the bridge crew returned, confused, and then renewed once they saw the state of the once hopeless battlefield.

The Nasrian Home Fleet, emboldened by the audacity and fury of a lone warship that outclassed every other vessel on the field, turned about with bloodied faces and bruised and broken limbs and went after the Valuans, remembering the flag that they had flown when Komullah had offered surrender.

The Valuans had not seen fit to give quarter, to spare lives.

The Nasrians, the children of the desert under the Red Moon, gave them the same.

* * *

_The Delphinus_

_Galley and Dining Room_

It had taken them hours after the remarkably short engagement to make a full accounting of the Home Fleet's status, and Vyse found the numbers Admiral Komullah reported somewhat disheartening. Still, it was not as bad as it could have been, considering. They had chosen the best possible moment to intercede; when the Valuans were so set on 'finishing the job' that they hadn't been looking out for a counterattack.

Fully a third of the Home Fleet had been so badly damaged that they'd had to set down onto the small dotted islands that had been their prowling grounds. The remainder was in various stages of damage and disrepair. After Komullah had come over to meet their rescuers, he had invited Vyse and his officers to dinner; due to the damage taken by the _Dunebreaker_, Vyse had ended up extending a counter-invitation to Admiral Komullah and the _Dunebreaker's_ captain to eat with them while the rest of the fleet's captains saw to effecting repairs and reorganizing their beleaguered forces. It only made sense, after all; the _Delphinus_ was the superior ship. Even if Polly didn't have the patience to organize a true state dinner.

The whole of the _Delphinus_ crew was all piled around the tables of the dining room, with Polly and Marco and Pinta hauling out platter after platter of food to be consumed. Laurence sat off on his own at the furthest table out, while Khazim and his men raised glass after glass of Nasrian wine to their success, even singing the songs and anthems of their people. Lapen and Osman ended up sharing a table near to the main one, with the merchant making effusive claims of happiness at their success, and sorrowful faces at the fact that so little of the supplies the Valuan warships had been carrying had been recoverable, as most of the ships that were destroyed had sunk past the clouds beneath them into the dark and unseen abyss of the Deep Skies.

And at the main table, Admiral Komullah and his captain sat next to Prince Enrique, marveling at the presence of a Valuan royal working alongside air pirates, while Vyse, Aika, and Fina sat opposite them. Well, stood for the moment, as Komullah was leading them all in a toast.

"To the crew of the _Delphinus_, the Blue Rogues of Captain Vyse. Cheers!" The Admiral raised his glass of cactus liqueur, brought over from his flagship for the occasion, and they all drank. Afterwards, they all sat down, every gentleman waiting until both Aika and Fina had sat down before doing so themselves. Vyse blamed Enrique for the practice; he'd done it once and had confused Aika until the prince explained courtly manners, and thereafter the girls had been positively _insufferable_ for a day or two as they teased him about _'showing us women some proper respect.' _Not that he hadn't found his own way of getting back at them for the stunt, until now it had tapered off to just being a thing they did around polite company.

"The Blue Rogues have often been an unusual sight in Nasrian skies, captain." Komullah went on, once they were all sitting and carving off slabs of meat from the serving platters laid out in front of them. "It was long my practice to tolerate the presence of those bearing blue flags when I served in the northern fleet, and it is one I intend to continue after today's events."

"I know of a ship or two in the area who will be pleased to hear that, admiral." Vyse replied politely. "How long do you think it will be before the Home Fleet will stand ready to continue delaying and irritating the Valuans?"

"Weeks, I think. For a proper refit, we would need the right facilities for the job, but our shipyards in Nasrad were destroyed when it was burned. Working with what we have and what we can recover from the islands here in the Frontier, it will be longer than we would like. Still, I doubt that Valua will be able to mount any serious offensive for a while. The bulk of their forces stationed in the region had been assigned to hunting us down. With every ship now gone and unable to report back, they may hesitate to send good money after bad. To use a merchant's saying."

Vyse rubbed at his chin. There was a solution to that, of course, but...it carried risk. He turned his head to look Aika straight-on, and his First Mate cocked her head to the side curiously, wondering what he was thinking. Then she blinked, blinked again, and smiled, then waved a hand at him, granting him tacit permission. Vyse smiled and nodded, then looked to Komullah, who had been observing them in silence. Watchful silence.

"I may know of a place where you might be able to find some help. Or at least a damned good ship's engineer." Vyse explained, and Komullah sat up a little taller. "But before I tell you more, I need a promise from you. The oath of an honorable admiral of the Nasrian Navy to a captain of the Blue Rogues. What I am about to tell you is information we guard closely, information that the Valuans would trade their right arm for. Our headquarters, such as it is."

"You believe that the Valuans would value that information over the destruction of the Home Fleet?" Komullah asked.

"Without question." Enrique spoke up, as grave as Vyse had ever heard him. "You are a nuisance to them, captain. In the grand scheme of the plots devised by my mother and Lord Galcian, Captain Vyse and everyone sworn to fly with him are a much more pressing and troublesome threat."

Komullah stared at Enrique for a moment, and slowly nodded his head. "There is a story behind how the Prince of the Empire came to serve as trusted confidante and soldier with this crew of Rogues," He mused, "but I will not ask for it today. I accept your advice with the wisdom and the seriousness you offer it in." He pressed a closed fist to his chest and inclined his head slightly. "I, Admiral Bast Komullah, in the name of the Red Moon and on the honor of my people, swear to never reveal the secrets I learn of you and your people with outsiders. May the desert swallow my bones and leave me un-mourned if I fail in this oath."

Vyse relaxed; he wasn't familiar with Nasrian vows, but that sounded like a serious one. A glance over to Khazim and his men nearby revealed that they had all stopped laughing and now were staring at the Nasrian flag officer with hard looks and slow nods. He could trust that reaction.

"I have members of my crew not on board the _Delphinus_ stationed back at our island stronghold, which is currently under construction. Should you be able to repair your ships enough to fly even a short distance, head south and make for Crescent Island." Vyse tapped his fork on his plate. "Brabham should be able to help you effect repairs. Especially if your crewmembers render assistance in his efforts in helping with ongoing construction."

Komullah laughed once under his breath. "I see. So, in exchange for your men helping to rebuild my fleet, my men will offer their help in building your base. A trade of sorts."

Vyse shrugged. "I would have you pay them for their assistance, but I doubt you have much in the way of funds at the moment. So, labor for labor seems fair enough."

Komullah nodded and held out his hand. "A fair bargain, Captain Vyse. I accept. We will help your people, as you have helped us." The two shook, and the dining room's celebratory air picked up again, with Khazim calling for another round of drinks in his loud bellow.

Komullah looked over to the gunner and chuckled. "Khazim, you drink too much! You always have!" He chastised the brawny man gently.

"And you never drink enough, Bast, so I have to drink your portion for you!" Khazim laughed, heedless of the criticism. Everyone laughed at that, and Komullah let it die down before he rubbed at his chin and sized up the other man.

"Khazim, I am told that you guided the ship's cannons and torpedoes in the battle to save us, is that not so?"

"All but the great cannon of light held within the belly of this metallic behemoth, yes admiral." Khazim bobbed his head.

"Your skills in gunnery have not faltered even for serving on Nasrad's walls." Komullah praised him. "Do you and your men have any wish to join my fleet? We have lost people, good people, and there are still blows to be struck against Valua. I would be glad to have such a fiery-spirited and skilled Nasrian in my ranks."

Vyse held his breath, and realized he was worried. Komullah was offering everything that Khazim had wanted; revenge. A chance to strike back against Valua. And he had something Vyse couldn't give him as well, the ability to stand with his own people.

Khazim lifted the square goggles he wore all the time, revealing sharp dark brown eyes that were nearly black. Though his face was still ruddy, there was no trace of jocularity there now, and he looked sober for it.

"A week ago, Bast, I would have leapt at the chance." Khazim declared. "But now? Now, I have taken an Oath. To serve under this man. To be a part of this crew. They are not Nasrian, but they fight against Valua, and from what I have learned of them in the short time I have been among them, I believe that what Vyse and the other Blue Rogues here do, where they go, will have a greater effect in stopping the Empire and serving justice for their crimes." The gunner shrugged. "A part of the Code that the captain lives by is that we leave nobody behind, admiral. When I took the oath alongside my men, I..._we_ all became Blue Rogues. I am Nasrian, and my heart is Nasrian, and I fight for our people still. But these are my people now as well, and I cannot abandon them. I will not."

Komullah sat in silence, then chuffed once and smirked. "We are all called to serve. We do not all serve in the same way." He gave a conceding wave of his hand to Khazim. "I accept your decision. Know that you carry the hopes of our people and the blessings of the Red Moon with you, Fasha Khazim."

Khazim grinned and slid his goggles back into place. "May the Red Moon bless you also, Bast."

Vyse drew in a relieved breath and grinned as Admiral Komullah looked at him good-naturedly. The Nasrian flag officer got to work on his meal again. "You inspire great loyalty and dedication in your crew, Captain Vyse."

"And they pay it back ten times over." Vyse replied. "We're not done recruiting yet, though. This is just the beginning."

"Oh? Where do you go from here?"

"A quick layover further in the Frontier Lands, and from there, to Ixa'taka." Vyse chuckled. "There are some people there I've been meaning to meet up with again."

"Valua makes many enemies." Komullah pointed out sagely.

"And we make many friends." Fina concluded, inclining her head ever so slightly before using her peripheral vision to meet Vyse's eyes. She smiled, and Vyse couldn't help but grin even wider.

They were just getting started.


	24. A World Full Of Rogues (Part 2)

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Twenty-Four: A World Of Rogues (Part 2)**

* * *

_The Frontier Lands, Ilchymis' Hidden Island_

_Upper Central Sky, North of the Valuan Continent_

_133 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Were one to ask about Ilchymis, the answer would depend largely on where one was. In Valua's capital city, one would hear the tale of the only son of a dying noble house brought up on fading old money, but who also held a sense of duty and morality. One would hear further that this noble son pursued a career not in politics or in military service as was standard, or even technological innovation. Ilchymis, the last scion of the House of Argas, had been enamored of science; the medical sciences, to be precise. In Valua, one would hear that he refused to pursue a career with the admiralty despite its clear advantages and developed medicines and remedies for the common man...and then disappeared from view right as Lord Galcian's interest in his talents had become prominent.

Were one to ask about Ilchymis on Sailor's Island, the people there would know the name, and tell stories about a strange Valuan who had a talent for medicines beyond anybody else, but who absolutely refused to put down roots and worked on a cash only basis. One would hear also that Ilchymis was in the habit of charging richer merchants and ships higher prices, but reducing the cost of his medicines to the truly suffering and needy. And there was no point in trying to dress in shabby clothes; the man knew the difference between the truly afflicted and destitute and those that were only faking it.

Were one to ask about Ilchymis in Nasrad, however, the name would earn quizzical stares. But if you also mentioned a silver-haired physician who made medicines better than anyone, their eyes would immediately brighten up. Yes, they knew of such a man, although he only ever called himself The Healer. Well, other people called him that and he more or less went along with it. He did not live in Nasrad, but he would fly in every so often on a small little ship, sell his wares in the bazaar for the day, stay overnight at Fatima's inn, and then leave midday the following after picking up several deliveries of supplies, medical books and other assorted sundries that he always had ordered in advance. Then he would disappear and travel north, away from civilization, and into the Frontier Lands.

Taken as a composite, the picture one would paint of the man known as Ilchymis du Argas was that of a physician who cared a great deal about the unfortunate, and who lived a very solitary, secretive life the rest of the time. He was remarkably hard to track down, and his knack for keeping off of the map meant that the Valuan Armada, who still had an interest in securing his services, was never able to track him down. They had been getting closer, though. They knew he was lingering far off the northern coastline of the Valuan continent, they just didn't know where. He thanked his strange little island home and research lab for that bit of saving grace.

The island he'd been living on for years now was an anomaly in a world said to be full of them. Maybe because of the mixture of yellow and purple moonstones embedded in its soil, maybe because of the mixture of warm, damp air from the south and the chill winds to the north, it would linger in the upper reaches of the central sky before rising up past the clouds to the upper sky, a place of thin air, cold temperatures, and very little wind.

Were Ilchymis an astronomer, he would have cherished the clarity of the view it offered. As he was a scientist, he kept the doors locked and the environment sealed when it was in the part of its cycle that took it to the upper sky. A little bit of cold and the thin air was a price he was willing to pay for the tranquility that came with having a home that nobody could find.

At least, that had been true up until today.

Today, a large metal warship with blue paint on its hull flew towards the island during its descent phase while Ilchymis watched, the laundry on the line ignored.

He scowled and walked inside, and locked the door behind him.

* * *

They knocked on the door a little more than ten minutes later, and Ilchymis sighed softly in the back of his study and waited for the soldiers of the Armada to break down his door and come charging in. It was just the sort of boot-heel tactics he and the rest of the world had come to expect from them.

The forced entry never happened, but a half a minute later, the knock repeated itself, perhaps a few touches louder. _"Hello?"_ A voice called through the entryway. _"Is anyone there?"_

Ilchymis slipped a bookmark into his Fourth Edition of Drake's Guide to Poisonous Flora and Fauna and closed it, setting his hand on the dust cover. He wondered if they might go away if he didn't say anything, these soldiers were being unusually polite.

_"Um, sort of a trick question. You left your laundry hanging outside. We're looking for a doctor named Ilchymis?"_

Well. Stick a pin in that ballooning hope. Ilchymis sighed again and stood up, strolling across the stone floor from his study through the workshop, and towards the front door. He stopped short of opening it, and leaned in to speak.

"I'm rather put out by the fact that you found me out here." He told the voice on the other side sternly. "I would have thought that the remote location would have been enough of a hint. Although I suppose the Armada doesn't know how to take no for an answer."

_"Yeah, we're not with the Armada." _The voice on the other side of the door replied cheerfully. It was a young man's voice, with a few shades of deepness to it. Ilchymis adjusted his glasses, considering it. The owner couldn't be older than 21 years of age. _"We're Blue Rogues. Can we come in and talk to you?"_

Ilchymis looked up at the ceiling in exasperation. Blue Rogues. Well. Of all the different peoples in Arcadia who might come to darken his door and ruin his sanctum, they were probably the most ideal. He might still have a home standing afterwards. Still…

"Do I have your word that regardless of what happens, you will leave my home in peace and not tell anyone where I live?" The physician demanded. There was a pause before the younger man spoke again, sounding much more serious.

_"On my honor as a Captain in the Blue Rogues, no harm will come to you and your home, and no member of my crew will speak of anything that might lead Valua to find you."_

Well. It was likely the best promise he was going to get. He prepared himself to be met face to face by militant air pirates who were only a marginal improvement over the rest of the world's brigands and thieves by dint of the Code that they were supposed to act and be guided by. Two turned locks later, he pulled the door open and stared out expecting swarthy and unwashed sailors that reeked of alcohol, and…

Well. That wasn't what he got. Standing front and center was a young man (_Very_ young, Ilchymis wondered if he had even turned 18 yet) with a scar down one cheek, and a telescopic eyepiece lens on the other side. He had tousled brown hair, a quirky and optimistic smile, and a swordfighter's build hidden away beneath a blue longcoat. Ilchymis stared harder and saw two places on his belt where swords should have been hanging, their missing presence given away by the slightly darker pattern of leather that the sun didn't get to as much. This must have been the captain, even though his young age made that possibility boggle the mind.

His eyes shifted to the second person and his mind _froze._

"Your highness." Ilchymis rasped from his suddenly dry mouth, staring at Prince Enrique du Valua. He knew _of_ the Prince of Valua, nobody of noble birth in Valua didn't, but he had never gotten the chance to know the young prince personally. He remembered attending King Mathias's state funeral as a boy, and vaguely recalled seeing the young prince, just a tiny stripling of a thing standing between his mother and Admiral Gregorio and asking, with childlike innocence, why his 'daddy' wasn't waking up. He'd never seen Enrique afterwards, in the long years when he went off to medical school and then continued his work afterwards, though it was nearly a requirement to keep up to date portraits of the Imperial Family. There had been one hanging in the royal libraries and the college he attended, and it was from those burned-in images in his mind that he recognized the man for who he was.

The Prince of Valua smiled uncomfortably and quickly waved Ilchymis back up as he started to bow. "Please. It's just Enrique." Ilchymis stared at him, and Enrique shrugged. "I am also a Blue Rogue, serving under Captain Vyse. I have left my title behind for the time being."

"I...I see." Ilchymis said, though he didn't really. It ate up the awkward silence anyways.

Enrique kept smiling placidly. "May we please come in?"

Belaid royal title or not, Ilchymis was not about to meet with the crown prince of his former homeland without a modicum of hospitality, so he had the two sit while he went about quickly brewing up a pot of tea with what dried leaves he had on hand. He was due to depart the island and go pick up some more soon, so all he really had left were the dregs. Still, Enrique declared it 'very fine' when he took a sip and nodded appreciatively. Ilchymis nodded back, and then turned to Vyse.

"How did you come to recruit the crown prince of Valua, captain?"

"I'm surprised you haven't heard any stories yet." Vyse said, setting his own cup back onto its saucer. "I think the story going around publicly is that we've kidnapped him as part of our dastardly ways. It's not the truth of course, but it's the story Valua is selling."

"I prefer a hermetic existence." Ilchymis explained. "And I don't particularly care. The prince looks to be in good health and he clearly is comfortable in your presence, so whatever decisions or events led to him becoming...one of you, it was anything but a kidnapping." He took another sip of his tea, set the cup down, and folded his hands in his lap. "Allow me to spare you a good hour's worth of talking around the topic before actually arriving at it, Captain Vyse. You have come to recruit me, if I had to guess. Is this so?"

"It is." Vyse nodded. "We're in need of a skilled physician and doctor on our voyage. Enrique brought your name up, once we realized we needed somebody who knew their way around crafting above-average medicines."

Ilchymis tilted his head up, knowing that the faint light in the room would shine off of his glasses and hide his eyes from their view by the move. "I refuse. Assuming I am being given the choice here, and you do not mean to impress me." Impressment was a fairly standard tactic within the Valuan Empire; The policy instituted by Lord Galcian and approved by Empress Teodora allowed for any young man of age to be claimed in any Valuan-aligned settlement or port for service in the Armada. It was the reason so many chose instead to volunteer; that route at least offered up better chances for advancement and better treatment aboard ships.

Vyse leaned back in his chair and nodded. "Of course you have a choice. I only want people on my crew who want to be a part of it. If I might ask, why do you say no?"

Ilchymis blinked at that and once more looked between Vyse and the crown prince.

A prince who asked to just be called Enrique, and had sworn allegiance to an air pirate, Blue Rogue or no. A prince who seemed saddened by his refusal, but made no move to argue against it, a pirate captain who accepted the same refusal on merit and evinced an interest in its motive.

Ilchymis breathed in and out. "A ship such as yours has but one purpose; to make war. I have no interest in war, or in spreading bloodshed. I chose a career of healing and medicine, and left Valua when it became clear that I would not be allowed to continue it unfettered. You are a warmonger, and I am a pacifist. I will not tell you that you are wrong, so kindly do not ask me to be someone I am not."

Vyse thought it over, nodded slowly, and then clapped his hands together before spreading his palms out. A gesture of acceptance, of 'washing his hands' of the conversation. "Well said. And I will not argue against it, nor ask you again."

"That is…" Ilchymis blinked, and removed his glasses, cleaning them to buy time to regain his composure. He hadn't expected the man to accept his decision without trying to argue about it further. "Thank you. Captain." He concluded stiffly, and set his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose.

Something gleamed in Vyse's brown eyes at that, and he stood up. "Thank you for the tea. As long as we're parked here, would you mind terribly giving two members of my crew a checkup? They're women, you see, and it's been difficult finding a doctor that will give them treatment without also being difficult about it."

Which was an understatement, Ilchymis knew. Most other 'doctors' out in the world were brutes who believed in sawing off injured limbs instead of treating them, prescribed alcohol for pain relief, and in some corners, still prescribed to the idea of bloodletting. And those were remedies offered to male patients. Female patients, far too often unfortunately, were taken advantage of.

It was a play on his sympathies, Ilchymis knew, and he raised an eyebrow. "One checkup. And then you will go?"

"And then we will go." Vyse promised, putting a hand to his chest. "On my honor. Do your best by my...by them." He said, pausing briefly.

"No harm will come to them." Ilchymis promised. Enrique doffed his beret and bowed formally at Ilchymis, who found himself bowing even more deeply because refused title or not, Enrique was still _royalty._ The prince and the young captain turned around and walked for the door, opening it and stepping back out into the chilly air. Ilchymis shivered as they closed the door, and went for his tea again.

Well. A relatively painless visit. And Vyse seemed the sort who would actually keep his word about not telling the world where to find him. Two checkups for two unknown female patients would see the Blue Rogues flying off and no longer darkening his door.

He could manage that much.

* * *

Their names were Aika and Fina, and they were both very pretty, with Aika having blazing red hair tied back in two ponytails that jutted up and away from her scalp instead of hanging down behind her, and Fina a living picture with blond hair down to her shoulders, dressed in a silver and white dress with a golden torc and bangles, and a small cutout in the dress just above her…

Well. Ilchymis was glad he was a professional. He could certainly see why Vyse would worry about them having trouble finding a decent physician.

He removed his fingers away from Aika's wrist and shook his head. "Well, so far as I can tell, you two are in perfect health. And neither of you reported any recent illnesses. So why was your captain so insistent about scheduling a visit with me?"

"Enrique said that you were a very skilled herbalist and chemist." Fina explained, smoothing out the nonexistent wrinkles on the front of her dress as she reached for her second cup of tea. The blond moved as though she were of noble birth herself, a theory which Ilchymis admitted was made a little more truthful with the fact that Aika liked to call her 'Princess' often.

"Medicines." Ilchymis corrected. "I make medicines."

And Fina smiled. "So, you're a pharmacist."

The term wasn't one that Ilchymis had ever heard before, and he tipped his head to the side. "Pardon?"

"A pharmacist. One that practices pharmacology; the creation and dispensing of medicines or remedies for illnesses, ailments, and conditions." She chirped, as if she were reading it from a book. "Which is exactly what we need."

"You need medicine?" Ilchymis looked between them. "For what? You're both as healthy as a Dhabu."

Fina bit her lower lip and glanced over to Aika, who cleared her throat and stared back at the doctor. "We need some medicine that will stop our monthlies."

"Ah." Ilchymis blinked at that. Anti-ovulants. A tricky, and very unexplored area of medical science. In truth, the more common remedies were harsh poisons used after the fact as abortifacients; they made a woman's body incapable of gestating new life. Almost all of those were equally harsh. The gentlest of them was a drink made from a particular leaf which only grew in dark areas under moonlight, and even then only under the light of the silver moon. Silverleaf was rare and expensive, but 'Moon Tea' was the go-to among the well to do, being taken shortly before trysts to prevent the man's seed from taking root. Its efficacy was largely based on anecdotal evidence, but it was still one of the most precious herbs out there. The fresher, the better.

He walked over to his supply shelf and got out a few other ingredients. "I could prescribe Silverleaf, but that's rather expensive…"

"Uh, yeah. We're not exactly rolling in gold at the moment." Aika pointed out. "But we do need something that isn't as _harsh_ as what's typically available."

"There has been some work done on the matter." Ilchymis explained, pulling out a few small vials. "Some _very_ small work. There is much we are still learning about the human body. But suffice it to say, we have identified 'hormones' as being a naturally occurring chemical in the human body. My own research has gone a little further, and I have found a way to extract an organic derivative of these naturally occurring hormones from select plants. There are two kinds which manifest in the female body; a steady overdose of them seems to suppress the menstrual cycle. However, it is not something I have immediately on hand." He apologized to them. "It will take me at least a few days of dedicated cooking to prepare the necessary doses. But by then, you will all have taken off and departed, and this island will rise back up into its higher position. If you like, I can prescribe a short-term abortifacient while I am working on your birth control medication. It is an inelegant solution compared to what my finished product should provide you."

The two young women both made a face at that, and Ilchymis tempted fate. "Of course, if that is not a preferable solution, there is always...abstinence. Refraining from sexual congress."

Aika and Fina looked at each other briefly, and then they both slipped into laughter. Fina giggled with a hand pressed to her mouth, while Aika let out a boisterous laugh that filled the room. "Uh, no, I don't think that's an option." Aika offered, when she could speak again.

Seeing as neither of them looked particularly distressed, Ilchymis let the matter drop. They weren't being forced into 'relations' at least. And it wasn't his business to ask which men they were sleeping with on board that ship.

Ilchymis sighed. "Very well. Give me a few minutes and I will prepare some sachets for you both. Brew them the day after you...enjoy yourselves, and take nothing else with them for an hour afterwards. I will start work on a more permanent solution, and you can retrieve them the next time you sail in this direction. I was going to ask your captain to never darken my door again, but I can make an exception in this case."

He got started on the abortifacient sachets, and Aika called over to him from where they were seated. "You know, it might be easier for you to get this chemical cocktail of yours to us if you were on the ship with us."

Ilchymis stopped his grinding in his mortar and pestle and breathed through his nose. "Perhaps. But I am not joining your crew. Your captain has already asked, and I have refused."

"Why?" Aika pressed him. "We're doing good work, you know. We're saving the world!"

"You are fighting a war." Ilchymis corrected her. "Perhaps it is necessary, and perhaps it is for a good cause, but I will not be a part of it."

"Why not?" Fina asked him, walking over to his workbench and looking at him expectantly.

"Because I am a _doctor,_ not a soldier or a pirate!" Ilchymis snapped irritably. "I chose to save lives, not to destroy them!"

"You could save lives if you came with us." Fina pointed out diplomatically.

"Certainly. Bandaging up war wounds and resetting broken bones for a host of air pirates. What a wonderful career." Ilchymis countered.

"Do you know how many people have been affected by Valua's reign?" Aika snapped at him, closing the distance to scowl at him. "They're like a hungry beast that never stops eating. They won't stop until they've taken over all of Arcadia and ruined it like they've ruined their own country. Hell, even _Enrique_ knows what they're doing is wrong!"

Ilchymis stared at Aika, and Aika stared back, and the redhead seemed just as likely to break as he was. Which was to say, not very.

"Is there nothing we could do to convince you?" Fina asked him softly, using a hand to grab Aika's elbow and pull her away from the confrontation. "Nothing we can do to change your mind?"

Ilchymis blinked at that, and felt his blood start to boil. Well. Points to the captain. Vyse had promised he wouldn't ask the question again, but he _hadn't_ promised that other members of his crew wouldn't do the same. Still, Ilchymis knew of one foolproof way to make the women give up, take their abortifacient sachets and leave him in peace to his work.

"The only way that I would even consider joining up with your crew would be if there was one among you that could cast the spell of Riselem." Ilchymis declared with finality.

In Arcadia, there were six schools of spellcasting, one dedicated to each of the moons. Among them, silver magic based on the silver moon was by far the hardest and most unreliable. Most tended to only learn the lowest level and then gave up on it. The promise of casting death and life was great, but nobody had ever cracked it. The results were high rates of unreliability; poor success rates. And in the sorts of situations where that power was truly needed, there was never much in the way of second chances. Riselem was the rumored highest tier of silver magic tied to the domain of life and revival. It promised a true revival from death with none of the fatigue or sickness, making a body whole after being torn apart. It was myth and rumor and fable and the Great Gift all rolled into one improbable nexus; none had ever cracked it, and so many had tried and failed and suffered in the attempt.

It was an impossible request, and thus one that Ilchymis felt secure in asking for. Nobody among that ragtag crew, he was certain, would ever be able to even attempt it.

And yet, Fina just stared up at him with slightly narrowed eyes that hinted at irritation and no real worry.

"Is that all?" She asked flatly, and Ilchymis laughed, because it had to be sarcasm on her part.

"Yes." He said, expecting them to pack up and go.

Fina held out her hand. Ilchymis blinked.

"What are you doing?"

"I need a spell crystal. I'm assuming you have one." Fina gestured with her fingers once in a beckoning motion. "As there is nobody dead here on the premises, I will need one to cast the spell."

Ilchymis wanted to laugh again at the ridiculousness of the order and her confidence. He wisely refrained, went to a shelf, and came back with a fragile piece of octahedral shaped moonglass, smaller than his palm. He set it into her hand, expecting her to fail.

His breath caught in his throat seconds later when Fina's eyes flashed a blinding silver and her aura blazed to life around her in the same impossible color, pushing down on him with incredible pressure and presence as an unnatural wind swirled around her. As terrified as Ilchymis was, Aika merely smirked and folded her arms, watching.

Fina muttered a few words in a language he had never heard, and the power from the nimbus of light all around her brightened about her hand and rapidly infused itself into the crystal set in her palm.

Then all of the light disappeared, and the room seemed the darker for it. Fina reached out and grabbed his wrist, then slipped the now charged crystal into his hand.

"There. One Riselem Crystal." She declared.

Ilchymis gaped as he instinctively sought out the spell's power within the small construct. He could feel the pulse, the promise of _life life life after death by wounds or by illness_ from within, the silver glow rising and falling like a heartbeat.

He had felt other crystals with other silver magic spells in them; fractured possibilities of _perhaps_ and _maybe_ and _this might work_. There was always such doubt, such risk present in them, for no caster could ever craft such magic without that high failure rate.

Ilchymis felt no such weakness in the spell crystal sitting in his hand. He knew, with the surety of all his healer's training, that this crystal would, without fail, restore a dead person back to full life, hale and hearty.

The great miracle, the dream of every healer, and this girl, this young woman made it seem like a parlor trick.

"How?" He whispered, closing his hand around it and staring at Fina in awe. "Who are you?"

She smiled thinly and managed a formal bow at the waist. "My name is Fina. Emissary of the Silvites, descendants of the great Silver Civilization. The last trained priestess of the Silver Shrine, battlefield healer to my beloved friends, and a Blue Rogue in my heart, if not in vow. And you are?"

Ilchymis swallowed. "I...I am Ilchymis du Argas. I am a healer and a physician and a maker of medicines, and…" He closed his eyes. "Can you teach me how to do this?"

He kept his eyes closed, and he heard Fina inhale sharply for a moment, wondered why, and just as quickly dismissed the question when she spoke again. "Not in a day. Not in a week, or a month." His heart fell at that. "But I can teach you the ways of silver magic, if you are willing to learn. If you were willing to sail with us."

There was the carrot. The largest carrot ever offered to him.

The chance to learn how to save the dying and the recently dead. If he would but sign on with the crew of Captain Vyse. He had refused on principle before, and out of spite.

In the face of this miracle, though, all that pride and principle began to fade.

"Nobody will ever ask you to fight." Aika weighed in softly. "We will only ask you to be who you are. A healer, now and forever. We can take you to places nobody has ever been, give you the chance to experience new herbal remedies, learn new medicines. We weren't lying about our need, Ilchymis. We need a proper doctor. My Princess is a miracle, but she can't do everything. We need you."

It only took Ilchymis a second to declare his answer. He was amazed it even took that long, afterwards.

Were one to ask the crew of the _Delphinus_ about a strange physician known as Ilchymis du Argas, they would tell you one thing.

He was their doctor.

* * *

_Delphinus _

_Surgeon's Quarters_

On most ships that Ilchymis had traveled on, the surgeon's office was more of an afterthought, some cramped little corner of the ship where the sick could be cloistered away from the healthy and space was always at a premium. On board the _Delphinus_, however, there was a dedicated space, triple wide with removed bulkheads, with just over two dozen beds laid out in rows and the frames bolted to the floor. An adjoining space was set up for his own use, which he quickly marked as both his sleeping quarters and his dedicated laboratory. There were glass cabinets, empty for the moment, and some of the best medical equipment one could buy sitting packed up alongside the small crates of supplies that Vyse and the others had apparently picked up prior to recruiting him. They even had a microscope with 100x zoom!

The work of transferring over all of his own supplies had required multiple trips and he'd gotten to meet several of the ship's crew already in polite company, but there was the matter of performing standard physicals and establishing baselines of health; The practice was unusual and raised eyebrows among everyone aboard except for Fina, who just smiled and nodded and said in a voice that would brook no argument from the others that _they would all be happy to comply._

Which added another layer to mystery around the blond-haired woman, Ilchymis realized after the fact. Her stunning and miraculous talents in magic aside, there had been moments in their interactions so far where he felt as though she knew more about his field than he did.

In all, it was a full day of unpacking and sorting and mounting before he felt ready to begin his work, so once it was all done, he started the process of cooking down the first of the plant-sourced estrogen and progesterone he needed, set a very loud timer for both burner-equipped flasks, and then radioed up to the bridge to let them know that he was ready to begin seeing his new patients.

His first patient was a young red-haired boy that insisted on wearing a ragged-ended green scarf. The lady Fina accompanied him, standing close but not holding his hand as the youth scowled and looked around the room first, then centered in on the doctor. Something about the boy made Ilchymis think of a wild huskra, one that was so used to being on its own, on being picked at, that it would snarl and bark and snap its jaws at anyone who got too close.

"Doctor Argas? This is Marco." Fina said, introducing the pair to each other. "Marco was our very first crewmember to sign on with us."

"Really?" Ilchymis adjusted his glasses. "He seems a little young to...be on a ship like this."

"I'm not a kid." Marco snapped at him, and Ilchymis chuckled nervously. Well. His first impression seemed to be right on the money.

All Fina had to do was press a hand to the boy's shoulder and _look_ at him, and the growl stilled on his lips. "Marco has faced a lot in his life." She said, looking back up at Ilchymis. "He is a Blue Rogue who wants to see the world. Please be kind to him, and look after him." Ilchymis nodded, and Fina let go of Marco's shoulder. "After you're done here, Marco, I think that Captain Vyse wanted to give you a lesson in helmsmanship before you got back to your normal duties."

"He did? Wicked!" The freckle-faced boy beamed, flashing a thumbs up. "We'd better get this done fast then!"

Fina's smile widened, and she walked away, waving a hand behind her. Out of respect and instinct, Ilchymis found himself bowing as she departed.

When he switched his attention back, he found Marco staring at him. "You're weird." The boy observed, and Ilchymis' brain finally caught up, placing the boy's accent.

"You're Valuan." The doctor countered, and Marco's scowl came back with a vengeance. He bobbed his head in the direction of one of the beds. "Why don't you take a seat up there and remove your shirt for me? We'll take a listen to your heart and lungs quickly before we do anything else."

He was ready for a lot of things, but when Marco pulled his shirt off, Ilchymis still made a startled noise in the back of his throat. He'd been ready for a lot of things, but not the sight of Marco's body. There weren't any bruises or scars, his life hadn't been that hard, but there were clear signs of long-term malnutrition that a more recent steady diet hadn't quite gotten rid of yet. He was scrawny and underdeveloped for his age, and what meat was on his bones was more for running than anything else.

The long-suppressed memory of a dying Valuan man from the Lower City who'd stumbled into the Upper City and perished in his arms from sickness and hunger reared its head back up again. There was still fire in Marco's eyes, however. Ilchymis focused on that as he continued the examination, ignoring how Marco shivered when the cold metal of his stethoscope pressed against the boy's slightly sunken chest.

In all, the brief physical examination didn't take long at all, and Marco was quick to slide his shirt and scarf back on after they were done.

"So, how did you come to be a part of the crew?" Ilchymis asked innocently.

"Snuck aboard the ship before it launched." Marco shrugged. "Figured I'd get off the next time it made port and make a run for it. Lucky for me, Vyse ended up stealing it first." The boy grinned at that. "He said I could get out of Valua and see the world if I wanted it bad enough. He ended up being right."

"So you knew him? Before?"

"Well, yeah. He and Aika and this old man they were with. I helped 'em sneak into the Arena to rescue their pals." The boy got a faraway look in his eyes as he smiled. "You know, he's really something. The first thing he did after we got out of the Grand Fortress? He let me come with him back to his home for a visit. And he even let me keep Pow."

"Pow?"

"A dog from his home island." Marco explained. "Kind of our mascot. Me and Pinta take care of him."

"I see." Ilchymis chuckled, not paying it much mind. After all, the bond between a boy and his dog was sacred. "So what do you think of everyone? Vyse and Aika and Fina and the prince?"

"Vyse is the best damn captain in the whole world." Marco declared, daring Ilchymis to say differently with a flare of anger in his eyes. "Aika's kind of a brat sometimes, but she's not bad, once you get to know her. And Fina seems nice enough; I'm still getting to know her."

"And the Prince?" Ilchymis asked. "You're Valuan, after all. Is it strange being this close to royalty?"

"He's no cake eater." Marco insisted. "He does the same work the rest of us do, and that's _with_ his airsickness."

"Oh my. He gets airsick?" Ilchymis was already sorting through remedies in his mind. He was rudely brought back to the present when Marco jammed a finger into his stomach, as high as the boy could reach on the taller man. "Hey!"

"Are you _spying_ on us or something?" Marco demanded. "If you're a spy, I'll stop you! This is my home, and they're my friends!"

"Calm yourself, little sailor." Ilchymis soothed the boy's nerves. "I'm no spy. Valua wants me as well."

"They do?" The boy's outrage flagged off fast. "What for? You kill somebody?"

"No. Quite the reverse. They wanted me to be a doctor for the Armada. I didn't want to."

Marco stared hard for a few seconds, then harumphed and gave a short nod of his head. "Good. You're better off here. It's the best ship in the whole world, Mr. Argas." He nodded and walked off, not waiting for Ilchymis to tell him they were done. Apparently, the promise of a flying lesson with his hero was something he was _not_ going to miss out on.

Ilchymis sighed as he kept making notes in the boy's chart, leaving a flagged front page in the folder to ensure that he got a higher regimen of quality nutrition with his meals. The boy was on the cusp of his major growth spurt, and there was a lot of catch-up work to be done before it happened.

* * *

_140 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Not everyone was willing or available to come down to him for a proper clinic visit, unfortunately. They had reversed course to the islands in the Frontier Lands to the east of the Valuan continent and had crossed over into the mainland when it came time for Ilchymis to see the gunnery officer Khazim for his first checkup. Captain Vyse wanted the gunnery crews on full alert during the crossing, which they were making at full speed in hopes of keeping the Armada's home guard unaware of their presence.

"So, you are the new surgeon, yes?" Khazim bellowed, a towering giant of a man who went without a shirt in the confines of the ship's gunnery control center, but refused to be without his Nasrian turban or his glasses.

"In a pinch." Ilchymis conceded, though surgery was the least favorite of the medical sciences he had studied. He preferred less invasive means of treatment, and had dedicated time to studying green magic for just that purpose. Still, magic eventually exhausted, and no physician would risk being unable to treat patients in the interim it took to regain their spiritual power. "I am better at making medicines. But today, I just need to check on you. I have already seen your men, but you have been more difficult to bring in for an appointment."

"We are very busy down here, you know." Khazim pointed out. He was on edge, and for good reason; before starting down, Ilchymis had glanced out his window and soured to see the darkened, lightning-filled skies of his homeland all around them. "At any time, we might find ourselves engaged in combat."

"Do you think it's likely?"

"The captain is not one to attack without cause." Khazim insisted. "And his lady of the fire hair has worked the engines so that they would likely be able to outrun any of the frigates that might be on station. That is the hope, anyways. Still, we stand ready."

"Do you think we have time enough to conduct a proper interview?" Ilchymis asked him. Khazim sighed.

"What do you need to know to leave me be so I can remain focused?"

"Your medical history. Any serious injuries or illnesses in the past. Allergies that you know of."

Khazim rattled off what he could remember. No major illnesses. No allergies. Only a couple of training accidents, one which broke an arm from the recoil of a gun fired by a cadet before they had been given the order to and a concussion from being too close to an explosion once. Illchymis nodded, checked his pulse and breathing, and was about to excuse himself when the squawk box went off, and Vyse's voice came down over the intercom from the bridge.

_"Bridge to Gunnery Control. Khazim, are your men ready?"_

"Always, captain! Have we been spotted by the Valuan pickets?"

_"Negative. But we're coming up on what seems to be a munitions factory. We're not stopping. Load torpedoes and prepare for launch. We'll hit them as we fly by."_

Khazim cackled. "On it, captain!"

Ilchymis rolled his eyes as Khazim sounded the battle klaxon and tucked Khazim's medical file away in his bag. "I'll see myself out."

* * *

_141 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Among the crew, nobody stayed busier than the captain, his First Mate/Chief Engineer, and Fina, whose own role in the crew was not so defined, yet who seemed to float wherever an extra set of hands were needed. In spite of all of the errands and assistance that the 'Silvite' as she had introduced herself gave to everyone, the blond-haired young woman somehow still found enough time to set aside to meet with Ilchymis and uphold her promise. That was, trying to teach him silver magic.

They were still over Valua, but apparently flying unmolested (which begged the question as to _where_ the Valuan Armada actually was if not out searching for them) which gave Aika enough of a window to join them.

"She's practicing as well." Fina explained with a low smile. "Aika has a real talent for red magic, but she's also very skilled with the green moon's power as well." There was a longstanding and archaic practice of aligning people with the six moons, depending on where in the calendar year they were born. Supposedly, one's lunar sign (whichever of the six moons and then either Rising or Falling) played a great deal in one's personality, outlook on life, and fortunes. They were also said to have a hand in one's talent for the six kinds of magic. A moon someone 'identified with' was said to be their primary talent, the one moon, and thus type of magic, that they were most skilled in. Ilchymis largely dismissed the notion of horoscopes and lunar signs because it was all based on anecdotal evidence and self-fulfilling prophecies. He was a man of science, and believed only what the evidence of repeatable, proven experiments could provide.

He wasn't sure, but something in how Fina carefully phrased her explanation of Aika's talents made him think that she might also be a skeptic of moon age mysticism.

Aika blushed a little under the praise and was all too eager to dive into the work alongside him, the pair using two silver moonstone foci Fina produced from the transforming creature she wore on her wrist as jewelry she called Cupil. For Ilchymis, it was two more jarring details about her. He had never seen, much less heard of any creature that even remotely resembled Cupil, and he had never held a silver moonstone of such quality in his entire life.

For lack of a dead person or creature to practice on, they used two small, withered potted plants that Fina had transplanted sometime before and conveniently forgotten to tend.

"The silver moon is the domain of life and death. Revival and discorporation." Fina said softly, her Cupil floating in a slow circle above her head as Ilchymis and Aika gripped their silver moonstone foci tightly and tried to draw out its power. "The green moon holds the power of renewal and growth, but it cannot bring life to what is dead. And the yellow, purple, red and blue moons offer destructive power to one degree or another, but none hold the absolution of true death. Such is beyond their domain. To bring life, one must understand death. To snuff out life, one must know what makes it possible. Yet in all I have seen of Arcadia, nobody teaches silver magic in this way. They try to take from it what they wish; warriors, death alone, mages, the power of life. Their thinking and their understanding are unbalanced. They try to control one alone, and control nothing."

Ilchymis opened his eyes back up in frustration when the silver moonstone offered only the barest hint of response, retreating away from him. "Your people though, they figured it out."

"The Silvites are what remains of the Silver Civilization. We live apart from the rest of Arcadia, separate and cloistered." Fina told him. "But the legacy of silver magic, even lessened, continued in the world without us."

"Just imperfectly." Ilchymis complained. "I'm not...I think I must be doing this wrong."

"You think this is easy?" Aika scoffed from next to him. The redhead opened one eye to gaze at him. "Fina's had me practicing since we left Maramba, and I still can't get it as good as I'd like."

"You will, dear heart." Fina consoled the other woman. "With practice."

"You just make it look so easy." Aika complained, almost pouting.

"And I trained in the ways of a priestess for _years."_ Fina reminded her patiently. "I'm asking you to visualize something that is so unlike any other moon's magic that it is in a category of its own." The Silvite looked over to Ilchymis. "Nothing in medicine has ever come easily."

He huffed at that, knowing her words were true. Trial and error, every generation painstakingly building on the work of the last. "We could do so much good if we understood silver magic. No spell could fail."

Fina looked away. "Life and death. Tell me, Ilchymis, what is the difference between a poison and a medication?"

He thought about it. "Sometimes, it is nothing more than the size of the dose."

Fina smiled and nodded, making him feel as though he had passed some hidden test in that answer. She reached a hand down over his plant. "Life and death are not so far apart as we think. There is always a spark of one in an abundance of the other. And one can go too far."

Her hand glowed with silver light, matching her eyes as the blue irises were drowned out by her power. The withered husk in the pot in front of him shivered under her aspect, and then color, the lush greenery of life, began to bleed into the brown leaves. Its stalk suddenly gained fullness and stood straight again.

Then, suddenly, her hand became blinding to look at, and the now living plant trembled...and cascaded outwards in an explosion of greenery, disfiguring itself in its rush to heal until it stood as a warped and mangled mess.

The glow receded from Fina's hand, and she reluctantly pulled it back to stare at the plant, now unnatural and riotous.

"One can kill with the power of life, condemning it to a twisted and painful existence. Sometimes, death is natural. Preferable, even. All things live, and all things die, and to ask life to be returned, or to ask life to wither and fade challenges that balance. Reality fights back against it. You must know both, or the magic will never answer you properly. You must know your limits and learn restraint. What does it matter if a fire burns hotter or an icicle grows larger? Such are their natures. This is so much more difficult." She waved her hand over the mutated plant again, and just a tiny pulse of her power lashed out at it, and the leaves withered and died as the stalk bled black and decay.

Aika groaned and leaned back in her chair. "I know you like to say that anybody can learn, Princess, but honestly? I feel like you're wasting your time with me on this."

"It is my time to waste, if that's so." Fina harrumphed. "But very well. Let's take a break."

Aika made tea for them all, and Fina sighed as she watched the other young woman steep the tea leaves. "She can brew tea perfectly with her magic, but I would _kill_ for a good cup of coffee right now."

"Coffee?" Ilchymis asked, unfamiliar with the beverage. Fina started, then smiled sheepishly.

"Right, you wouldn't have heard of it. It's my hope that we'll be able to resupply when we reach Ixa'taka. You'll either hate it or love it." She leaned her elbows on the table and peered at him. "So. Ilchymis du _Argas_, you said. An interesting last name. Where did your family get it?"

"I'm not certain." The physician shrugged, glad for the respite. "Supposedly, my family wasn't from Valua, not originally. But we've had ties to the kingdom for a long time." He tempered his frown. "I didn't leave immediately when the kingdom decided to become an empire, but my father died soon after. I think the death of the king, and what the country became, broke his heart. In the end, he accepted that I chose to pursue medicine. He said that I was still upholding the family creed." Ilchymis shook his head, because even when he was dying, his father hadn't accepted him and his choices. He'd merely tolerated them.

Fina's head cocked to the side slightly. "A creed?"

"A tradition among Valuan nobility." Ilchymis explained. "Any family of significance that merits a standard also claims a motto, a saying that defines them. The royal family's motto, for example, is _'Pride in leadership.'_ Appropriate, but not very original."

Fina used a hand to cover her smile. "I see. And what was the Argas family creed?"

Ilchymis blinked twice, because it took him a moment to remember it. He hadn't thought about it in years. "Ah. I believe it was, _'Always to guide, never to Rule.' _It was certainly the most unique of all the family creeds I'd ever learned."

The Silvite stared at him for several seconds before nodding her head. "There's a lot of wisdom in those words, though."

"Perhaps." Ilchymis conceded. "For much of my family, though, it meant those that sought service in the military, or in the court, were usually passed over for promotion. That motto kept my forebears in service positions or advisory roles. My father was a counselor to King Mathias before he passed away, even."

Fina paused before speaking again, nodding gratefully to Aika as the other woman came over with three mugs of tea. They all sipped at it and woolgathered for a time, with Ilchymis enjoying the silent company as he ruminated on what Fina had explained, and shown, of silver magic.

"You know, Ilchymis, from what you've told me, I think your father was proud of you when he passed away."

"He didn't say so."

"I know a thing or two about dealing with prideful people." Fina said, refusing to let him deflect it. Aika let out a somewhat derisive and watery snort at the blonde's assertion, and Fina rolled her eyes before she continued. "They don't often tell you what they're really thinking. I think he was glad that you stayed out of the Empire. Your family creed was everything to him, I suspect. You couldn't uphold that family vow being a part of it."

Ilchymis gave that train of thought a good long ten seconds of consideration, trying to mesh up the possibility Fina was suggesting with all of the scant moments he had with his father before the old man had passed on.

She reached a hand over and rested it on top of his own, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"He would be proud of what you are doing now as well." The woman said, calm and with a surety that left Ilchymis wondering.

They drank their tea, and nothing more was said on the matter.

* * *

_North Ocean_

_Gordo's Bistro_

_143 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

One of the things which came as a surprise to Ilchymis was how quickly the captain and crew of the _Delphinus_ would bounce between exuberant happiness and somber sorrow. He got a firsthand dose of it once they passed through the Valuan continent relatively unhindered, save for one unfortunate frigate that refused to leave them be, and reached the North Ocean.

There, roughly midway through their southerly voyage, they docked with a refitted ship that sported an enormous balloon shaped like a fat man's face, mustache and all. It turned out to be a flying restaurant owned and operated by a (former) Black Pirate named Gordo The Round. Gordo at first thought he was under attack, but the sight of the Blue Rogue flag that Vyse used as his emblem made everyone relax, and soon alcohol and food were flowing, with Vyse bartering off the fish in the walk-in icebox that they'd caught over the voyage in trade for a meal that Polly didn't have to prepare. It was a party up until Gordo, who left the cooking to his staff while he entertained and played host, asked Vyse how 'Drachma' was doing.

Vyse, Aika, and Fina's faces all fell in unison at that question, and Gordo looked down in sadness. "Oh." The restaurant owner said. "I...I'm sorry."

"He died the way he lived." Vyse offered, his smile strained. "Chasing Rhaknam. But he saved us first."

Gordo made a gesture to another member of the waitstaff, and soon a fresh round of high quality Valuan brandy in tiny glasses came out on trays, a shot to every customer in the room. Nobody drank while Gordo raised his own shot glass.

"To absent friends." Gordo declared. "I never sailed with Drachma, but I knew of him. He was a good man steeped in bitterness, and despite everything, he continued to be a thorn in Valua's side."

"To Drachma." Vyse said, lifting his own shot in salute and then drinking it in one quick gulp, shivering afterwards. The room echoed the name and then drank as well. But then Gordo refilled his shot glass and Vyse's as well, and smiled.

"I have one last toast to make before you all keep on eating me out of house and home. A toast to your captain, Vyse of the Blue Rogues. If he hadn't whipped me and my toque-wearing bandits soundly, I might still be a Black Pirate. But now, because of a suggestion he made, I have been reborn as a reputable merchant, a _restauranteur!_ Instead of sailing the seas for new and exotic foods and spices, I ask that people bring them to me, so that I and my crew might have the joy of new and fantastic recipes to cook!" Gordo extended his glass forward. "To you, Captain Vyse. For showing this old pirate that not all plunder need be taken at the point of a sword or a frying pan."

Vyse smirked and clinked glasses with him. "Just be sure you _stay_ reputable."

"Mostly?" Gordo asked, raising an eyebrow. "After all, a completely reputable businessman wouldn't dare be seen dealing with Blue Rogues."

Vyse laughed at that, and they downed the second shot together. Ilchymis was more than willing to be a presence in the background, watching it all unfold. As a result, he was uniquely positioned to see another patron in orange with spiky brown hair and a set of aviator's goggles jerk his head up at the mention of Vyse's name during the second toast. He seemed confused, disbelieving, and flummoxed in different measures. Ilchymis wondered if he was trouble, but aside from a small bootknife, the man was unarmed, and didn't have the look of a hardened fighter.

He still grabbed his fork tight as the man finished his mug of ale and came over, coughing to get Vyse's attention.

"Are you really Vyse?"

The captain of the _Delphinus_ looked at the man and blinked. "It's an unusual name, I'm pretty sure I'm the one you're thinking of."

"The same Vyse who's been finding one Discovery after another across all of Mid-Ocean and bleeding the Sailor's Guild for the information?" The man pressed on. Vyse nodded, and the fellow let out a long-suffering groan and put a hand to his forehead. "Unbelievable. I come in here to drown my sorrows after being told that every lead on a Discovery I had in Ixa'taka has already been found, and you stumble right into me."

"I'm sorry?" Vyse apologized unsurely. "I could buy you a drink to make up for it?"

The man let out a short, sharp bark. "A drink? By the abyss, I want to know how you do it!"

"Ah." Vyse frowned at that. "What's your name, sailor?"

"Domingo." The man introduced himself, pressing a thumb into his own chest. "Explorer, adventurer, and seeker of lost things. I'm also bitterly jealous of your talent. Just how old are you?"

"I turn 18 in a month or so." Vyse said. Domingo groaned at that again.

"Unbelievable. A _kid_. I've been upstaged by some kind of genius _kid_ who's a _captain_ and has the biggest Moons-damned ship sailing the skies." Domingo looked around a room. "And you have an entire crew. A crew full of people who either love you flat-out or respect you. How do you manage to do that, fight the Valuans, and still have time to take away all the glory of the Discoveries I've spent my life chasing down?"

Vyse laughed at how put out Domingo sounded, and Ilchymis smiled and set his fork back down. No fight was going to happen here today. "Blue Rogues never give up. And we're known for going until we drop."

"I guess." Domingo muttered. "There's nothing left for me to find now. You've cleared out all of Mid-Ocean, you know."

"Oh, not all of it. I'm pretty sure I haven't." Vyse deadpanned. "And besides, you said Mid-Ocean. Have you thought about going outside of it?"

Domingo blinked at that. "Outside of Mid-Ocean? Where are you going next?" Vyse just smiled, and Domingo jumped on it. "Can I come with you?"

"I don't take passengers. Only crew." Vyse refuted him.

"Then can I join your crew?" Domingo demanded, and Vyse smiled wider.

Ilchymis shook his head and took another drink, stunned again at the company of Captain Vyse and his Blue Rogues. Domingo had all but fallen into Vyse's lap. He'd been wondering for days how he and Aika and Fina had gotten so many people, the crown prince of Valua included, to join up with them.

In his own case, it had been because Fina had shown him a glimpse, just a _glimpse_ of the power to heal and to save that he'd been chasing his entire life, and it was enough to walk away from the rest of his life.

Vyse had offered Enrique a means of restoring the honor of his country in the only way left to him; by stopping the power that had consumed it. Vyse now recruited Domingo because he could give Domingo the world, and help the man to discover new wonders.

The physician looked over, and it took him a bit to find where Aika and Fina had taken up a chair in the corner across the bistro from him. The two had finished their own meals, and their toasting glasses sat empty on the table in front of them. They didn't celebrate raucously like the rest, but instead just smiled and leaked happiness out into the room, with Fina curled in and resting her head on Aika's shoulder, and the chief engineer's arm wrapped around the Silvite's side and pulling her in even tighter.

Nobody else was paying attention to the young women, and so they all missed what Ilchymis saw; their free hands pressed together, fingers intertwined and resting just barely at table level on Fina's lap.

The both of them were watching Vyse as the captain spoke with Domingo, content and at peace, and were it any quieter, Ilchymis thought they might have fallen asleep right there.

The both of them had been insistent on him making a better birth control medication for them. Ilchymis was suddenly glad for the principle of doctor/patient confidentiality, because that was one discussion he didn't feel like having.

There was no easy way to warn your captain that there were two women on board his ship who were competing for a claim on his affection, and had taken steps to make seduction all but assured.

* * *

_The Lost City of Rixis, Continent of Ixa'taka_

_145 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Another thing that Ilchymis du Argas hadn't been expecting was how easily Captain Vyse and Aika and Fina all seemed to act on the same wavelength. After passing through the wrecked remains of a grand iron net that had spanned through an enormous hole in the mountains that formed the northern border of the continent beneath the green moon, the _Delphinus_ had descended at the base of another mountain hidden by the mists, and he found himself being 'invited' by both Aika and Fina to accompany him on one of the ship's skiffs to travel into the lost city of Rixis. Vyse himself and everyone else on the ship were to sail on to Horteka, and they would all meet up again at King Ixa'taka's hidden residence.

"If you get there before we do, be sure you hound Isapa for a _lot_ more _kafa_ beans." Fina had told Vyse with quiet intensity. "I am not going another morning without my coffee if I can help it." That she grabbed the front of his coat with one hand squeezing the collar uncomfortably tight added a less subtle threat to the request.

Vyse had chuckled nervously and held up both hands. "Coffee. Got it." And then Fina had smiled, let go of his coat, and stepped back looking like sugar and sunshine. Vyse had sighed, and Aika had merely chuckled and started up the engine of the skiff.

After landing, Ilchymis had found himself being escorted by the two women into the old ruins of a stone face, and onto a platform that glowed suspiciously of lost technology.

"Why are you taking me to Rixis?" Ilchymis asked them, and Aika looked over at Fina for a moment while the Silvite breathed in and out, composing herself. Something had the blonde on edge.

"There's something you need to see." Fina explained, and then the platform started to rise upwards, guiding them in an ascent up a long stone chimney. "Rixis was the original resting place of the Green Moon Crystal, but it also has plenty of secrets of its own. One of them is something that will be of interest to you."

She was silent the rest of the ride up, and at the top they stopped off into a sea of thick fog...and endless ruins. The lost city of Rixis, said to be paved with gold.

There was nothing but broken stone, semi-standing walls, and impact craters, and Aika and Fina guided him through it with a memorized path. Aika had her boomerang drawn and readied, but aside from letting her strange little companion Cupil float freely above their small procession, Fina seemed completely relaxed and unconcerned about being attacked. Ilchymis thought that perhaps she felt that way because they had been here before. Anything that she had been worried about must have been cleared out before.

"Rixis was the capital of the green civilization in the age before the Rains of Destruction." Fina began, a somber tour guide as they passed through the wreckage of a place that was. He was breathing harder than usual, struggling to keep up, and Fina and Aika slowed their pace. The air here felt exactly like it did on the island he had called home before they recruited him; thin. They must have been very high up.

"There was no better place in the world to stargaze than up here on the high mountains of their homeland. They had observatories dedicated to it, and watched distant stars. Recorded the movement of the planets in the solar system, the patterns of the moons. They were a curious people, bound to the green earth, but forever looking above it." Fina breathed shallowly, more accustomed to the weaker atmosphere. "They cultivated growth and health, and in the stars found a counterbalance in the ages above us."

She was talking over his head; solar system? Planets? To Ilchymis, to the rest of the world, there was only Arcadia and the six moons and their sun. What did Fina know that he did not?

"When the Rains of Destruction came, not even Rixis was spared the wrath of the heavens." Fina stopped for a moment to allow Ilchymis to catch up, and he froze as Fina gestured to an enormous crater that she had made them pause next to. "The only difference was that up here, above the clouds, there were no rains to wash away the ruins. Bodies decomposed, everything that they had and recorded was lost. Only the stone, a tribute to the green earth they called home, remains. This place is an open tomb for that lost age. The few survivors retreated below, into the jungles, and they might have been able to recover if their suffering had stopped there."

Ilchymis swallowed. "It didn't though, that's what you're saying."

Fina looked at him and smiled sadly. "No. It didn't." She looked over to where Aika, who had walked on ahead of them, was now coming back. "Are we all clear?"

"Nothing's moving. I think the critters we scared off last time decided not to roost here again and moved on. And the old traps and guardian totems are...well. Still broken."

Fina nodded, started walking again, and Ilchymis followed her through the rubble and the mists.

"Why am I here?" Ilchymis demanded, after they used a platform to pass an entire maze of ruins and arrive in a still standing structure that was full of empty rooms and hallways. "Fina, what does the story of Rixis and the Rains of Destruction have to do with me?"

"We're getting there." Fina reassured him. They crossed through the corridors and came to two platforms, side by side, resting beside a platform that jutted out over empty air and a long drop. Aika stepped onto one platform, and Fina took Ilchymis's arm and guided them onto the other, and the two platforms engaged and started to rise up.

"We're going _higher?"_ Ilchymis wheezed, staring at the platform under his feet with a wave of dizziness and panic.

"Hell yeah we are!" Aika cheered across the chasm between their platforms, sitting on her lift without a care in the world. It cemented a thought the physician had been entertaining for days; these Blue Rogues were crazy.

Fina kept her grip steady on his arm. "Go ahead and sit down." She instructed him calmly, and he slumped onto the platform, realizing shortly after that he felt his back pressing up against something. He turned and stared to see a faint glow rising up from the edge of the lift for about a foot and a half. He reached out and touched it, and Fina giggled. "Safety wall. You thought you were going to fall off? They knew how to build things to last. Now, where was I?"

"Um. Your story?"

"Yes." Fina nodded. "So. The Rains of Destruction came to wash away the sins of the old world, and quell the monsters that the civilizations had made to wage war on each other. But for the green people, who had created the Gigas Grendel, the Rains had not stopped their beast. It went wild and out of control, and rampaged through their homeland. It would have killed everyone and destroyed everything...but someone stopped them."

"Who?"

Fina smiled and looked up ahead and above them, and Ilchymis was left with uncomfortable silence as the platform finished the ascent. At last, they cleared the mists and the clouds entirely, and found themselves on a plateau looking at a sun-beaten temple of stone at the top of old, ageworn steps.

Aika hopped off of her platform first and she helped Ilchymis down. Fina calmly stepped off with a grace that still made Ilchymis think she was descended from royalty herself, and the Silvite led them up the stairs into the stone temple.

Ilchymis stopped as he stared at the portraits and writings on the walls, because there in the center image was a person…

Dressed exactly like Fina.

"My people stopped them." Fina said, answering his question at last. Yet her voice was hollow. "But they weren't my people, not exactly. As far as I was ever taught when I trained to be a priestess of the Silver Shrine among the Elders of my people, the Silver Civilization did not wage war like the other five did. We did not built Gigas and send them out to make war. We retreated away from the world, and when the Rains of Destruction came, we were spared the wrath of the Moons for our piety. We remained apart and separate as the old civilizations, the old world, withered and perished, and the survivors struggled to rebuild."

Fina walked up to the wall and traced the image of the Silvite carved and painted into its surface with a trembling hand.

"When we crossed the Southern Ocean and reached Ixa'taka, the people here, the Ixa'takans, asked us if I was _Quetya._ Quetya was a person of legend, their gods and goddesses who saved them before, and who they prayed would come and save them again after the Valuans arrived. To a degree, we thought they were right after the fact, because we did fight to free them. We did push the Valuans out of Ixa'taka. But it wasn't until we found these ruins...and this message, inscribed in ancient Silvian, that I realized they were being quite literal. Because _Quetya_ means nothing in the modern tongue, or in Silvian, or in the language of their people today. But in the language of the ancient, green civilization? _Quetya_ translates literally to _Silver Angel."_

She spoke with her back turned to Aika and Ilchymis, and the doctor looked over to Aika, wondering if the other girl had any better idea where the Silvite was going with her deliberation. Aika just folded her arms and nodded, and looked back at Ilchymis, raising one eyebrow.

The doctor's heart skipped a beat as he realized; Whatever Fina was leading up to, _she had discussed it with Aika first. _And probably Vyse as well, given how unconcerned he was at letting the two young women wander off into these ruins dragging a decidedly helpless older man along with them.

"The message here, written in Silvian, stunned me when I first read it. It was left behind by those who came here from the 'Temple of the Silver Moon' and explained how they stopped Grendel's rampage, put him to sleep and saved the continent that would today be called Ixa'taka. There was no record of any of my ancestors ever coming here back in my home, no mention of anyone from the Silver Civilization ever saving the world after the Rains fell. Yet they were here, despite what I was taught. Silvites of old returned to the world of Arcadia and fought to save it, fought to dig it out of the ashes. Once that settled into my mind, after we had put Grendel back to sleep and restored the peace and I had time to think about it...I realized something else."

Her hand finally pulled back away from the wall and she drew in a shaky breath. "In this world, there were people who must carry the blood of my ancestors. In this world, I wasn't alone. Somewhere, lost to time and distance and genetic drift...I had _family."_

Fina turned and stared at Ilchymis, and the hope and intensity of her focus was so great that he forgot to _breathe._

"You...You think I'm…"

"Your name." Fina cut him off. "Ilchymis du _Argas._ A derivation of the root, Arcadius. It's where you get the name of the world, but Arcadius is still a derivation itself. In ancient Silvian, the word was _Arrakad. _Which meant 'Moon Born.' Arrakad wasn't a name long ago, it was a title given to those who could claim the power of the Moons as their own. Because not everybody could use magic, not now and certainly not then."

Ilchymis's brain spun wildly in place, and he slumped to the ground. "Impossible. I...But that's…"

"Your family creed." Fina continued, racing into it. There was eagerness in her words now, and she rushed through, as though she might lose her resolve if she stopped. "Speak it."

The old words stuck in his brain, and it took tremendous will to shake them loose, to force them onto his tongue, to get them out. "Always to Guide, never to Rule."

I took an oath when I began to train as a priestess of the Silver Shrine. I was just a little girl, speaking words I didn't understand. But I understand them now, just as your father did yours." Fina sniffed, and he saw tears gathering in her eyes. _"I ask the Silver Moon to empower me, not so I can conquer, but that I might lead. I ask the Silver Moon to protect me, not so that I will be invulnerable, but so that I can be a shield to those who are weak. I ask the Silver Moon to bless me, not so that I would live above my people, but so I might show them the path."_

She blurred then, and it wasn't until Ilchymis felt the burning in his eyes that he realized it was because he was crying as well. He pulled off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. She let out a laugh full of sorrow.

"Ever since Rixis, I have wondered if I might ever find any evidence of my people. If there was some trace of them, some remnant of the legacy of those who refused to hide away, who stayed and fought for this world that I might stumble onto."

Fina's hand reached out and pressed to his chest. "I found you."

"I'm not...I'm not a _Silvite."_ Ilchymis said, the words heavy and wooden as his body felt then. "I'm not even Valuan, not really. I'm _nothing._ I'm just a doctor who flew around and helped people in secret. I never asked to be given anything."

"You aren't a Silvite, no." Fina agreed, and her hand came up and tugged at his hair.

At his silvery hair, glossy and metallic when brunette, blond, black and red were the default colors across all of Mid-Ocean.

"But you're all I have left of my people." Fina stammered, and Aika made a soft noise of hurt and comfort and raced to her side, grabbing the girl in the silvery white dress and holding her close in a tight hug.

Ilchymis shook his head, strung out and worn and _broken._ His entire world sat around him, as crumbled as the ruins. Everything he had known as truth was lost now, and he was left with the tenuous new frame of existence that Fina had held up to his eyes.

"You said your ancestors didn't settle down in any one particular place. That they traveled." Fina hiccuped, holding onto Aika for dear life and forcing herself on. "I don't think that was a mistake, or because of wanderlust, or because they were too weak to settle down and try to grab power for themselves."

"Always to Guide." Ilchymis repeated, seeing his family motto, the oldest oath he had known all his life in a new light. "Never to Rule."

Fina pulled herself out of Aika's arms and walked over to him right as his dizziness hit its peak. He slumped to the side, and his face was buried in the fabric of her skirt.

Her soft hands pressed to his head and held him there.

"You're home." Fina promised him, and she kissed the top of his head. "You are _home_, Uncle."

Ilchymis du Argas, _Ilchymis the Moon Born_, laughed and cried and held onto the last priestess of the Silver Shrine for dear life as Aika grabbed and anchored them both.

Ilchymis had gone with Vyse, had gone with Fina so he might learn the secrets of silver magic, the key to life and death.

Were anyone to ask about Ilchymis, ship's doctor, apothecary, and surgeon aboard the _Delphinus_ among the rest of the crew, they would tell you emphatically that he was forever saving their lives.

Ilchymis would be the first to shake his head and tell anyone who asked _him_ that the very first life that was saved was his own, and that it was his niece, countless times removed, who showed him how.


	25. A World Full Of Rogues (Part 3)

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Twenty-Five: A World Of Rogues (Part 3)**

_King Ixa'taka's Hideout, Ixa'taka_

_147 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Aika sometimes would find herself sitting down, regardless of whatever she was doing, just so she could marvel and ruminate at what her life had become. Not the fighting and being a Blue Rogue and being stuck up to her elbows in a ship's engine, no. She'd always known _that_ would be a part of her life. It was everything else that took her breath away and made her eyes sting from sudden, happy tears.

Everything had changed when they attacked Admiral Alfonso's flagship and rescued an unconscious Fina. It had been the start of it all, and now she had the love of her best friend whose cheek was scarred in the act of saving her life, the love of a woman that they both cherished and who loved them back just as deeply, and she was the Chief Engineer of what was quickly becoming the most feared ship in Mid-Ocean. She was friends with a _Prince_ who had walked away from an easy life because he could not stomach what his mother and his country had turned into. Their doctor was a man who Fina insisted had ancestry that traced back to long-lost and formerly unknown cousins of her people, she was 'Big Sis' to a scrappy, loudmouthed Valuan street urchin who was living his dream of seeing the world and growing up under free blue skies.

They had friends and allies everywhere, and the Code that she had sworn by, lived by, was in a state of transitory flux as Vyse pondered changing phrases that had stood immutable since its inception 20 years.

But the thing that made Aika's heart sing the loudest when she stopped moving, stopped grinning, stopped _laughing_ was the girl she almost always went to sleep next to, and struggled to sleep without.

She stood in the guest longhouse that she and Fina had been staying in, leaned up on one of the main support beams, and looked at the Silvite still sleeping. A thermos of freshly brewed coffee, boiled from the _kafa _beans that High Priest Isapa had passed on to the two of them when they arrived at the Hideout ahead of Vyse, sat nestled safely in her ever-present satchel.

Fina was a girl who loved her sleep and still struggled to wake up when Vyse and Aika did, but so much of her grace and poise she wore constantly, the practiced elegance, disappeared when she was lost to her dreams and the muzziness when she first woke up. Once upon a time, Aika had called her 'Princess' with derision for her mannerisms, and now called her that nickname with fondness and love for the same reasons. All that didn't exist when she was sleeping or when she was alone with her and Vyse.

The mien of courtly grace drifted away to reveal Fina's true self, the _woman_ she was beneath it all, the side of her she let nobody but her dearest friends and lovers witness.

Aika wiped a tear away from her eye and stayed still, even when the longhouse's door opened and a familiar set of boots came in quietly, though not silently, and stopped behind her.

The redhead shivered as warm, sword-callused hands moved her hair away from her neck and lips pressed to her pulse right after. Her eyes fluttered shut, and her soft smile widened into a smirk.

"Morning, lover." Aika purred, and Vyse let out a soft chuckle as he pressed in behind her and flattened his palm against her stomach, covered not by her usual leather armor but just the pale green nightgown she'd worn to bed the night before. "Missed you yesterday."

"We got busy in Horteka." Vyse hummed against her throat in apology. "There was a whole _thing_ where the chief insisted on throwing us a party, and then Centime fell apart blubbering when Lapen went up and apologized to him, and then he and Hans and Centime spent hours fixing up the _Ironsides_ so Hans could join up with the crew and Centime insisted on Lapen staying on with us and keeping an eye on his 'little brother' and Lapen and Centime got in a fight over who would be a better role model for Hans. I swear, they almost got out the fighting wrenches until Carol slapped them both on the arm and told them to stop treating it like a competition, and then Lapen and Centime went and got drunk together on aged Garpa wine…"

He was kissing her neck between sentences, and a few days ago that would have made Aika melt, but Vyse really picked the funniest story to tell, and she fell apart in his arms snickering with a hand over her mouth to stifle the belly laugh she had stored up in her. She didn't want to wake up Fina with a belly laugh. Vyse, mercifully, stopped talking after that and just held her until she calmed down again.

"So. Yes. A whole thing." Vyse repeated, trying for a shorter (and hopefully more serious) sounding answer.

"Well. I suppose I can forgive you for having a _thing_." Aika snarked at him as she pivoted in place, and rested her arms over his shoulders. The fact that it brought their faces wonderfully close together so she could stare into his beautiful brown eyes (And he'd removed his goggle before walking in, oh, that was _never_ a good sign of keeping a pair of dry panties) was purely coincidental.

Vyse smirked back at her, and nudged her pelvis ever so gently with his own, making her gasp a little. "You do love my thing." He joked.

"Most days." She rolled her eyes, and intentionally looked towards Fina to keep him from getting too many ideas. "I suppose we should wake up sleeping beauty over there."

"Surprised you haven't yet." Vyse loosened his grip a little and leaned his head over to look past Aika. "How did Rixis go? I caught Ilchymis at the men's hut on my way over. He actually seemed _happy_ instead of just dragging his feet along."

"Rixis went really well." Aika explained, kissing his cheek before letting go of him just long enough to sidle up beside him and join in on watching Fina continue to doze. "Remember that mural Fina found that had her questioning everything? About why there weren't records of her ancestors staying on Arcadia and helping out after the Rains? Turns out that Ilchymis' family descends from them. So she's claimed Ilchymis as a long-lost uncle now." Aika glanced at Vyse sidewards. "He's...rather agreeable to the idea."

"Will wonders never cease." Vyse chuffed exactly once, then leaned over to kiss her, and this time Aika turned her head so he could kiss her properly instead of all over her still buzzing neck. It was slow and soft and perfect, and when they pulled apart it was the easiest thing to nestle her head under his chin and sigh.

"I love you." Vyse said, his voice thick with feeling, and Aika hummed, knowing how deeply he meant it.

This was her life, and she wanted to weep from the joy of it.

"I love you too, you pirate." She giggled instead. "But there's someone else who probably needs to hear it this morning. And I've got something to help her wake up."

"Funny, so do I." He growled low in his chest and let go of Aika, stalking towards Fina, still asleep and completely unaware of the fate about to befall her.

Two minutes later, Fina was gasping his name and writhing as he peppered her mouth, ears, and her neck and hastily bared shoulders with kisses while his hands and body trapped the rest of her underneath the blanket, slowly waking up but still too muzzy to do much of anything besides feel, and definitely not awake enough to either kick him off the bed or beg him to tear the blanket away and finish what he'd started.

Which was when Aika, feeling _much more_ like herself, sauntered up beside the bed and removed the thermos of freshly brewed coffee that she had prepared before coming back into the longhouse and losing herself in the miracle of what her life had become. She popped the lid off and blew over the surface of the dark liquid, filling the air with the potent smell of coffee and the wake-up drug Fina swore it contained, that it was _named _for.

"Fina? Babe?" Aika intoned sweetly, and smiled all the more when Fina's aroused, shot-wide blue eyes turned to look past Vyse and up to her. Or rather, to the thermos in her hand. "What do you want to wake up with this morning? The tall drink of water teasing you to death, or this thermos of coffee?"

Fina's eyes actually flashed silver as her power and her desires aligned. **"Coffee."** She groaned, and nudged at a now pouting Vyse until he rolled over to allow her to sit up. Aika finally let out the belly laugh she'd been sitting on as Fina grabbed at the thermos like her life depended on it, breathed in the aroma, and then took a sip that left her groaning even louder than Vyse's ministrations had with her eyes fluttering shut.

"Way to make a guy feel wanted." Vyse grumbled halfheartedly. Aika dropped her satchel on the floor and then flumped over the end of the much smaller bed than they'd gotten used to in Vyse's quarters on the _Delphinus_.

Aika grabbed at Vyse's hand and pulled at him until he gave in and allowed himself to be pulled up and on top of her. "Poor baby." She cooed, looking up at him as the clothed captain of the _Delphinus_ stared down at her with darkening eyes. "I still want you. You mind, Fina?"

"Of course not." Fina smirked, pulling her feet up and away from them as she kept drinking a beverage that by all accounts, she really couldn't go without now that she knew it still existed. "Of course, there's still a problem." The Silvite pointed out.

"I agree." Aika rumbled. "Lose the pants." She ordered him. Vyse chuckled and sat back on his haunches, reaching for his buttons until her hands stopped his. "Keep the coat on. I want to know it's my captain making love to me."

"As my lady wishes." Vyse answered, and Fina just smirked and kept drinking her coffee as she watched them. And after the coffee was gone, joined them.

Aika could never have predicted that her life would have ended up like this.

It was turning out so much better than anything she'd ever hoped for.

* * *

_King Ixa'taka's Palace_

Though the old stone castle was still mostly in ruins after the Valuan Armada's onslaught at the start of their occupation of the territories, the rescued prisoners from Moonstone Mountain that hadn't immediately gone straight to Horteka had opted to work alongside the king's guards in beginning renovations. It was slow going and only the throne room was intact, but it was still the best meeting grounds for those not privileged enough to know the location of the young king's hidden sanctum.

Take, for example, the Black Marketeer and ship merchant named Lorenzo, who Aika and the others were surprised to learn had taken on a very unique role as arms supplier for the nascent Ixa'takan Navy. They found him waiting just outside of the audience room, and after some stunned stares and pointing and shouting, explanations were quickly passed between them.

The wire-haired alcoholic mutely shook his head at the news of Drachma's passing. He reached for the flask strapped to his hip, uncapped it, and raised it in the air before taking a swig. "Here's to you, you old bastard." He muttered in the barest facsimile of a toast. One long rum-soaked sigh later, he grinned at Vyse and Aika and Fina. "Still. You three've been doing well for yourselves, from what I hear. Valua hasn't bothered sending anything more than token ships through here."

"I thought you'd have pulled up roots and left." Vyse mused. "No Valuans, nobody to sell arms to."

"Alternative markets." Lorenzo shrugged. "The King's been buying up my surplus. I'm selling at a loss, but at least I'm getting _some_ of my money back. More than I would have gotten by hauling it back to Valuan territory and trying to slip it back to the wholesalers."

"How very unfortunate." Prince Enrique declared diplomatically, and Lorenzo paled only a little bit before he coughed loudly and nodded to the royal-of-indeterminate-status in their midst. "Have you given thought to becoming a _reputable_ merchant of these skies instead?"

"Not much money in that, your highness. Not with tariffs jacked as high as they are by the Admiralty."

Enrique breathed loudly, nodding his head once. "Something else I often argued against, to little effect. Regardless, you might have better luck traveling around if you passed yourself off as a _legitimate_ businessman. At the least, you would not need to fear surprise inspections quite so badly."

"If you know of something that makes more money than bootlegged liquor and arms sales, your highness, I'm all ears." Lorenzo said sarcastically.

Enrique chuckled, pointing to the flask in Lorenzo's hands. "Have you tried the local spirits? There was this quite marvelous wine, and they have varieties of fruits and vegetables that nobody has ever heard of."

"Sellin' produce unknown to the rest of Mid-Ocean?" Lorenzo muttered, scratching at his chin. "What makes you think that they'd buy any of it?"

Aika perked up. "I know of one man who will buy _anything_ that can be eaten, cooked, or drank." She said. "And he's parked right in the middle of North Ocean. You ever hear of a man named Gordo?"

"...The pirate?"

"Former." Enrique explained, still smiling placidly. "Now he owns and operates a restaurant, and he's always looking for something to make a delicacy."

Lorenzo squinted at the four of them, then raised a finger up and shook it at Vyse. "Is this what you do? You deal with people and you...you _make them go legit_ on you?"

"Uh. No? Not really?" Vyse said unsteadily.

That was when Fina let out a, for her, uncharacteristically loud laugh before she hid it behind her hand, stifling it down to giggles. "No, you really do, Vyse." The Silvite said, once she was more composed. "Rupee Larso? Gordo? Lapen? All former Black Pirates."

Aika groaned at the realization, but brightened up some as she recalled something else. "But then again, you turned Fina, a perfectly _innocent_ young woman into a Blue Rogue, and now you've got the prince of Valua onboard as a crewmember and an advisor. So that puts a pin in the _redemption_ idea." She winked at Fina, silently daring her lover to try and argue against Vyse being the source of her lost innocence, and Fina blushed and stayed quiet.

Vyse rolled his eyes and looked over to Lorenzo. "At least think about it. If you're up front with the king about finding them a new source of revenue, he may be willing to help your venture out a little. And just because you start selling Garpa Fruits openly doesn't mean you can't find ways to still smuggle other things."

Lorenzo brightened at that. "So. It's a cover then, is it?"

"Vyse, please don't encourage illegitimate business activities." Enrique sighed again. "Not where they aren't warranted, at least."

"Riiight, right, your highness." Lorenzo tapped the side of his nose. "Absolutely. I'll be straight as a rail when you take over, rest assured."

Enrique shook his head, his smile more forced. "You may be waiting quite a while for that day to come, merchant Lorenzo." And Aika could hear _if I'm ever allowed to rule after this_ underneath it all. Thankfully, one of the king's guards came out then and declared that King Ixa'taka was ready to receive all of his 'friends of Centime's lineage', which was a close approximation for them all being Blue Rogues. Centime did make for a reasonably crazy, but good-natured softie of an uncle in hindsight.

As they marched in, though, Fina sidled up beside Vyse's unoccupied side and whispered in a mock silence, "Why didn't you bring up coffee beans? Arcadia would _lose its mind_ once they became available."

"Because as much as Lorenzo has been of help to us in the past, Fina, _Kafa_ beans are something that the Ixa'takans see as sacred, for all that we're able to con Isapa out of enough bags of roasted beans for our own crew's use." Vyse said back softly. "And should they decide to pass on their sacred drink for mass consumption, I would like the people of Ixa'taka to see the benefit from the growing and selling of them. Not merchants from Mid-Ocean."

"They'll still need vendors to take their goods to other markets, you know." Enrique pointed out.

Vyse chuckled a little. "Naturally. But who's to say it won't be Ixa'takan vendors on Ixa'takan ships who will take their goods to market?"

"They have ships able to do that?" Enrique blinked in surprise.

"Maybe not yet," Vyse hedged, "But in time?"

There were times that Aika stopped and wondered just how the boy who had tackled her into the grass and pulled at her hair when they'd fought as children had become this man. Her footsteps faltered as her mind finally caught up to the strange and intuitive leaps he'd made so naturally.

Vyse somehow was already looking past a future dominated by the Valuan Empire, to one where the Empire's high tariffs and tight-fisted grip on trade didn't exist. He was looking towards a future where Ixa'taka stood not as an impoverished continent and kingdom whose people stood at the mercies of everyone else, but a future where the people under the green moon stood as equals with the rest of Arcadia.

She wondered what else would shine so much brighter in the world he searched to find.

* * *

_South Ixa'takan Airspace_

_148 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

They were sailing past Horteka and approaching the next chunk of the continent that held the Moonstone Mountain where they would make a hard turn and go directly East, where they would find themselves diving into the currents of the Southern Ocean with the wind at their backs.

The engines were as tuned as they were going to get, and with Aika now having not only Lapen but his foster brother Hans on the crew, that job took a lot less time. Hans was more skilled in diagnosing faults and managing repairs and replacements, while Lapen had a knack for fabrication and leaps of mechanical engineering that led to shortcuts. And weapons and weapon repairs. Hans was more than happy to leave the guns and torpedo launchers to his older brother. But there was one piece of machinery on board the _Delphinus_ that none of them, Aika included, felt completely comfortable dealing with, and that was even after reviewing the schematics and the woefully short instruction manual left behind by De Loco.

The Moonstone Cannon was a one of a kind weapon of terrifying power, but it was very much a work in progress that none of them quite knew where to begin. To their great fortune, there was one member of the crew who had a working knowledge of Moonstone-based energy weapons at least a decade or two in advance of their own.

No, given the surprising talent Fina had for grasping next-generation technology, it was likely more in the range of centuries.

The Silvite stood at the head of the table, the blueprints and diagrams laid out in a messy pile for Fina and Aika and Lapen and Hans to all stare at with equal attention. And Fina didn't seem overwhelmed by any of this at all.

"The metallurgy and refinement is rudimentary, but De Loco managed to replicate, on a very large scale, a Moonstone-cored solid-state pulsed particle beam cannon." Fina explained with unflappable calm. "Thankfully, Ramirez _who I have no doubt was his source of information in its development_ never spent much time studying weapons engineering or particle physics; it wasn't a part of the skillset our Elders insisted on him learning." The Silvite smiled a little sadly at that. "For once, the obstinancy of my people's leaders did something right. In short, Valua built this thing, but they did so with a very rudimentary understanding of the underlying mechanics and theories that make this work."

"Here's to terrible oversight." Lapen offered in praise, lifting up his mug of coffee. Aika chuckled at that; he'd caught Fina dragging in a thermos in the morning, asked for a taste, and had immediately perked up. The bandana-wearing weapons engineer looked to be the first of the 'early adopters' that Fina had sworn would come around to her favorite beverage. "Though I have to ask, Fina, how come you know so much about it? Aren't you a priestess?"

"Communing with the Silver Moon and learning prayers and rituals gets very _boring_ after a year or two, Lapen." Fina replied crisply. "I took to reading and studying about anything that could keep me occupied when I wasn't praying or meditating. The kind of engineering you all have is...well. I can't do it. But this? Moonstone energy weaponry?" The Silvite grinned. "It's only new to you. Did you know, for example, that your Gunarm's main cannon used an imperfectly cut silver moonstone? It's why the thing fairly _screamed_ when you fired it, and why even a grazing hit could be fatal. The faulty resonance harmonics of the focusing lens you were using was building up to a cascade failure, what we call a 'singing stone.' A few more shots and the entire tank would have blown up and taken you with it. Believe it or not, Enrique did you a favor stabbing it before things got _worse_."

Lapen went pale and covered up his chastened state by taking another drink, and Aika just smirked and looked over to Fina. "So. What's the plan for upgrading this hunk of De Loco built junk?"

Fina held up her right hand and extended her index, middle, and ring fingers. "First, we're going to open up the focusing array and realign the moonstone lensing rods. From the brief peek I was able to take, they slapped together cored rods from the silver, yellow, green and red moons to build this thing, and they don't always cooperate. Add in the impurities from their refining process, and it's going to take some very delicate work to get them treated and reseated in the housing. The second thing we're going to do is take a look at the electromagnetic coils along the length of the cannon's barrel, and get them tuned up for maximum efficiency so we'll have a tighter beam with less energy bleed-off. The bonus to doing that is it'll result in a lot less waste heat and a more accurate shot, so we'll be able to fire it more often and much more cleanly than before. A proper moonstone energy cannon of this size shouldn't lose cohesion for at least 100 Lunaleagues. And the **third thing** we're going to do is build a better capacitor. Frankly, the charge time and the amount of spiritual energy this weapon requires is ridiculous. It made me pass out the first time I used it, and it took everything I had. With the improvements we're going to try and make in the focusing array and the electromagnetic jacketing, it should lower the overall power requirements for the shot by…" Fina got a funny look on her face as she ran some rough calculations in her mind, "...An eighth? Maybe even a sixth if we do a _really_ good job, but without ultra-pure moonstone focusing rods, there is a point of diminishing gains."

Fina finally stopped talking, noticing that Lapen and Hans, and _yes_ _even Aika_ were all staring back at her in varying states of comprehension and agog confusion. The Silvite blushed and pressed a hand to her cheek, leaning into it with a sigh.

"How much of that went over your heads?" She asked.

"Most of it, Miss Fina." Hans said.

"Half." Lapen confessed.

Aika just shook her head. "I don't know enough about the underlying mechanics to follow you, really."

Fina nodded and got out a blank sheet of paper. "Well. I suppose we'd better start with a basic explanation about light, energy, wavelengths and resonance harmonics then…"

The impromptu course on bleeding-edge scientific theory was cut short by the wailing of the battle stations klaxons, and a few moments later, the intercom on the wall blazed to crackling life.

_"All hands, man your stations. Advance team, report to the foredeck and prepare to repel boarders. Looks like those complaints we heard about Ixa'ness Demons weren't just scuttlebutt after all."_

Saved by the bell. Aika stood up and smiled brightly to the others. "Lapen, Hans, get to the engine room. Fina? We'll have to save the lecture for later. There's work to do."

Fina eased out of her chair and smoothed the nonexistent wrinkles from her dress. "When is there not?" The blond-haired woman smiled back at her.

* * *

_Evening_

Aika sighed as she walked into the galley, worn out and looking forward to a meal before she turned in for the night. She wasn't at all surprised to see Vyse sitting by Fina, cheerfully talking with Marco and Pinta as the boys hung on his every word. She shook her head and went over to the serving counter, giving Polly an easy grin while the buxom older redhead nodded back at her.

"Hey, Polly. What's on the menu tonight?"

"Fresh loaves, pressed Garpa fruit, and Lumal Stew. With fresh Hortekan vegetables."

"Hey, I'll take it." Aika smiled, grabbing a tray and a plate. A bowl of meat and vegetable stew got placed onto it, along with a glass of sweet-smelling fruit juice and a small loaf of bread just the size of her palms still crusty on the outside and warm. She could see a pot of the garpa's remains over on the magnetic stove which would likely end up being a part of tomorrow's breakfast. "How's things been in the kitchen?"

"Not bad. But they could be better. I would love it if we could rig up the ovens to be a little more turbulence proof. I think there was a manufacturer in Maramba who'd been rigging up a gimbal system. Is that something the captain might be able to look into when we get there?" The woman asked politely.

Aika smirked, because requisitions of that nature was definitely the kind of thing that was up to the captain or his shipwright (They didn't have a shipwright, not with Brabham and Izmael still back at Crescent Island working up a storm) to deal with. Somehow, the crew had decided that in the absence of speaking to Vyse directly, she and Fina made perfectly acceptable intermediaries. Which was true enough, but when that _that_ gotten out to everyone? Fina had mentioned that morning that Tikatika had pestered her for a new pair of "Far-seeing tubes" (binoculars) whenever she got around mentioning it to Vyse.

"I'll see what we can do." Aika promised Polly. Vyse had business in Maramba anyways, she'd have time for a side trip. She scooted her tray off of the sliders at the counter and walked over to the captain's table, plopping down on the open side of the table next to Fina. The Silvite smiled and nodded at her, and Aika gave her a wink before listening in on the conversation in progress.

"Honest, Marco. Enrique and I didn't do a blessed thing fighting those girls."

"We rather insisted on them sitting it out." Fina added with mock seriousness. Aika cackled at the memory of their fight against the Ixa'ness Demons, who had taken one look at Vyse and immediately declared him their 'prize'.

Well, if a trio of warrior girls thought they could make off with _their man_ they had another thing coming. It was a point of pride. About halfway through the fight, the three had tried to combine their spiritual magic into a rather alarming combination attack, but Aika and Fina had put a stop to _that_ well enough with a boomerang to the face and a spell of stoning that left one of them screaming with an ossified arm.

Fina reversed the effect after they surrendered, of course. They weren't out to _kill_ misguided people, just hurt them. A lot.

There was a bounty out for them in the Sailor's Guild; Lorenzo had passed that bit of information on to them. It would cover the cost of Polly's new gimbal-mounts for the ovens and stove, more than likely.

"So suffice it to say, boys, that it was _not_ okay for those girls to go around kidnapping men to drag back to their village as husbands." Vyse intoned, bringing the summary of the day's major event to a close. "So I want you two to promise me that when you decide you like somebody, you won't do that."

"Promise!" Pinta said, throwing out a hasty salute that made his exposed tummy jiggle. Marco just made a face, and Aika laughed. The former street urchin was still in his 'girls are gross' phase, and thinking about how Lyndsi had hounded him back home…

"All right. Now, go give Polly a hand cleaning up and then get to bed." Vyse smiled and waved them off, and the boys grabbed their trays and took off like a shot. The captain of the _Delphinus_ leaned his elbows onto the table and sighed as he let his head sag forward. "Those two were a handful separately. Together, they're menaces."

"They're children, Vyse." Fina consoled him. "They're full of energy and questions and they're somewhere they feel safe enough to go exploring and getting into mischief. Compared to the life he had before, I think it's wonderful Marco's this cheerful."

"Point." Vyse breathed, sitting back up again. "Laurence has the night shift at the helm, but we're anchoring before heading into the Southern Ocean tomorrow. How are we looking for it?"

"Shipshape as we'll ever be." Aika said to him. "Are we anticipating any trouble?"

"No Valuan presence in the area, and we were always the only ones crazy enough to brave the Southern Ocean." Vyse told her. Fina shivered between them, and Vyse reached out and grabbed her free hand before Aika could. She settled for resting her palm on top of both their hands, and then using her other hand to brush Fina's hair back away from her face while Vyse looked into the Silvite's scared blue eyes.

"Fina?" Vyse asked her.

Fina drew in a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. "I'm all right." She said, in a voice that didn't convince either of them. "I'm fine. I'm fine."

Fina had pushed herself into a breakdown when they had crossed the Southern Ocean in the _Little Jack_, too terrified to fall asleep in a storm that never stopped howling and whistling and moaning outside.

"No, you aren't." Aika told her, growling a little. "You're staying with me tonight. And every night we're flying through this."

"In my cabin?" Vyse asked quietly. "I'll be pulling some night shifts at the helm, we won't be able to stop and dock anywhere and I'll have to show Laurence how to fly through this without hitting any wind-blown islands or getting tossed around by the cyclones, but it's your room as much as it is mine."

"Maybe." Aika hedged. "But I think that the nights, Vyse, when you aren't there? We'll just stay in my cabin. Or Fina's." He nodded, his face placid as he scanned the room again, and the redhead smiled. Moons, she loved this man. He knew that the girls loved each other, had _been_ with each other before he stumbled back into their lives, and was perfectly fine with them taking some time for themselves.

"Not a bad idea." He conceded. "That bed's a little too big some nights." And both Aika and Fina looked to him at that as he smiled back, a touch of sadness in his eyes.

Moons, he had just told them that he got _lonely_ without them.

"Maybe...maybe you can come stay with us when you're having trouble sleeping." Aika offered, and his brown eyes perked up at that.

"The regular beds aren't _that_ big." Fina hummed humorously, looking to Aika before turning to Vyse. "It could be a bit of a tight squeeze."

Aika looked around the room for a moment, just to check and see if anyone was listening to their conversation. Nobody was; the few crewmembers here in the dining hall were either holding their own conversations or giving the three ranking officers of the _Delphinus_ space to talk alone.

"What a shame." Aika drawled, letting her eyelashes flutter shut as she sized up Vyse. "Somebody might have to sleep on top."

Vyse snorted and blushed and went back to his meal, and Fina giggled approvingly as she nodded to Aika.

"I'm sure that you have a plan for how that will work out."

Aika did, of course. An alternating plan. Their relationship worked the best when there was compromise, after all.

* * *

_Delphinus Bridge_

_Western Entrance to the Southern Ocean_

_149 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Another wonderful thing about having two other capable engineers was that she could assign them to watch the gauges down below and handle switch-flipping duty next to the massive moonstone steam reactors and the reciprocating engines and serve as their eyes and ears up on the bridge. That it let her stay close to Vyse and Fina was another benefit, but one that she didn't go around declaring publicly. And this morning was one day where she _absolutely wanted_ to be up on the bridge. They were diving into the Southern Ocean, and both Vyse and Laurence were on duty, with the stoic helmsman gripping the wheel tighter than usual while Vyse stood up next to him and stared out of the bridge's enormous front viewports to look over the length of the ship and the endless, endless screaming skies beyond. They were on the cusp of entering that jetstream, and all four main propellor shafts were running in reverse at half speed to keep them from going into it while final preparations were made. A low howling moan could be heard even through the ship's impressive layers of insulation and sealing gaskets around the windows and portholes.

Nobody was paying much attention to anything else besides Vyse, Laurence, and the enormous maelstrom just outside their window. Nobody else saw how close Aika stood to Fina, or how Fina's hand shook as she reached for Aika's down beside her waist. Standing side by side, nobody saw how the Silvite grabbed her hand for dear life and leaned into her as though she were an anchor in the storm. Aika knew that Fina likely saw her as exactly that.

"When we flew this before, the wind was in our faces the entire time; just us in a tiny converted wooden ship with an engine built for a ship three times our size. And even with that, progress was slow. Going with the currents, we're going to have the opposite problem. This ship is going to be flying faster than you've ever flown before." Vyse instructed Laurence. "The trick is going to be riding _with it_, instead of fighting the currents."

"I've flown through storms before, you know." Laurence told him waspishly, and winced a little when Vyse just laughed lowly and shook his head.

"Not like this one you haven't." He said, and let his face turn serious. He needed Laurence to stop trying to grumble his way through this, Aika knew. "The Southern Ocean is a howling current made by the warm, moist air off of Ixa'taka funneling through the corridor between sky rifts. It goes in one direction and when it hits cold air, you're not just going to be dealing with gale force winds and islands big enough to hide this ship inside. You're going to be facing an ocean of typhoons, enormous spinning cyclones of wind and water that extend from the Lower Sky to the Upper Sky, spinning like wild tops without any pattern or direction. It took us over 40 days to fly it going against the headwinds. Flying with them, we're probably going to clear this in a week, and there won't be any stops. When you're not flying this ship, I will be, and I'll be flying it twice as much as you."

Vyse's eyes were hard, and the normally stoic Laurence was actually going pale under the captain's stare. "If you're starting to get afraid, good. Fear can be healthy. Fear will keep your senses sharp. Nothing about flying through the Southern Ocean is routine. We have an advantage in that we're in the best possible ship for it, but inattentiveness can kill anyone. Remember the bet we made when you signed on, Laurence? This is the proving ground. You have a week to prove to me that you're the better helmsman. Just remember, when you're at the wheel, you hold the lives of everyone on board this ship in your hands. You hold the fate of the world in them as well, because without us? Arcadia is screwed."

Laurence wavered, then stepped back away from the telemotor. "You'd better show me how it's done then, Captain."

"Giving up the challenge already?" Vyse asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Laurence's eyes flashed. "I'm not risking the lives of everybody aboard over a challenge. You can keep the 5,000 gold."

Vyse nodded, and broke out into a much easier smile then as he assumed control of the helm. "I'm proud of you, Laurence. You've finally stopped thinking like a mercenary, and started using that...what did you call it? _Sentimental drivel_ for your life choices. You're absolutely correct, there are things more important than money."

"Just fly the ship." Laurence grumbled. "I'll take the next shift, but talk me through your process."

Vyse spared a glance back towards Aika and Fina, and Aika felt Fina's hand squeeze down on hers even tighter. Almost hard enough to make her wince, but Aika resisted, and just gave their lover a stiff nod.

Vyse turned back around and hit the squawk on the speaking tubes to access the whole of the ship. "All hands, prepare your stations. We're entering the Southern Ocean."

The engines moved from reverse to half-speed ahead as Vyse flicked the EOT and Aika's Centime trained underlings shifted the mighty engines over to regular rotations. The _Delphinus_ shuddered slightly as it entered the more turbulent air currents, and the noise of the howling winds increased. For a while, anyways. Then they eased off, and the ship's shuddering...stopped. They were flying _with_ the jetstream now.

The moaning winds that Aika had never forgotten about were still there, lower than before, but never quite going away. Fina's fingernails dug into Aika's palm until she made a noise that finally stirred the young woman out of her panic.

A week of this.

She could do this.

* * *

_Fina's Cabin_

_Evening_

Osman caught Aika in the corridor just outside of Fina's room. They were a hallway down from the captain's more impressively sized stateroom, and her own cabin was just across the hall from Fina's, but Aika still felt a jolt of terror at nearly being caught out.

"Careful, my dear! There's no reason to be so jumpy, it's just Auntie Osman!" The buxom merchant crowed, tapping the side of her face with her flat paper fan. "Good gracious, what has you so worked up?"

"Just tired and looking forward to getting to bed." Aika said, not having to fake her fatigue. "Thought I'd check in on Fina first. What did you want, Rabina?"

The older woman's eyebrows went up from behind her dark-tinted glasses. Aika didn't usually use her first name, and the woman had caught the slip. "I was just wondering if you had an idea of our progress so far. I have a few crates of goods that I bought up while we were in Ixa'taka...some produce, some native ornamentation and carved wooden masks, grass skirts and the like...and I am hopeful that we'll arrive in port before the fruit spoils."

"You didn't buy them already ripe, I hope?"

"Oh, moons no." Osman declared. "Any merchant worth their salt knows better than _that_ when you're dealing with perishables over long distances."

All things considered, Aika was just glad that Vyse had talked the woman out of trying to export the rare and brilliantly plumed birds that came from the green lands. The cargo holds were busy enough without having to deal with the loud squawks of animals.

"Vyse thinks we'll cross the Southern Ocean in a week." Aika told her coolly. "Add in a couple more days to round the Cape and then we'll be in Maramban airspace in no time at all. Will that work for your timeline?"

"It should." Osman nodded. "I'll have to shuffle some of the plantains around, make sure that the ones turning don't gas off and spoil the batch too quickly, assuming they play by the same rules as the other fruits I'm used to dealing with. Still, that recipe for fried plantains on a stick was absolutely _divine_, and…"

"Yeah, yeah." Aika waved her off. "I'll take your word for it. Now, would you mind?"

"Oh, of course. My apologies." Osman said, not sounding apologetic _at all._ "I can understand wanting to check in on the competition."

"The _what_ now?" Aika stared at her, and Osman just smirked, waved, and waddled off. Aika shook her head, chalked it up to another aspect about the _infuriating woman_ that she would never understand, and then knocked on Fina's door.

"It's open." The faint voice of her friend and lover answered, and Aika walked in, closing it behind her.

The room's glowing electric lamp was dimmed (And wasn't that just a brilliant idea, a _dimmer switch_ to make the lightbulbs less bright) and Fina was sitting on the edge of her bed, wearing her Ixa'takan nightgown with a cup of something warm and steaming in her hand. Cupil was in his resting form, a silvery puffball lounging on the bed beside her with the world's cuddliest stuffed doll.

"That better not be coffee." Aika warned her as she reached up to her pigtails and started to pull the bands that held them up and off to the sides.

Fina glanced up, a pale smile on her face, and shook her head. "No. Just herbal tea. Polly insisted it would help me sleep."

Aika sighed as the first of her pigtails gave out, and the long red hair cascaded down behind her head and her back. "No luck?"

"It...It helps. A little." Fina muttered, looking down at the floor. "My heart isn't racing so much."

It had probably been racing all day, Aika knew. Her heart ached to see her friend, who was soft and shy and demure, turned that way not because of practice but because of the terror she was likely feeling. A girl who had grown up never having to deal with storms or thunder or howling winds, thrust into them all over again.

The other pigtail gave out and all of Aika's hair fell behind her, a curtain of red that made Fina look up in appreciation. It stirred Aika's heart a little as she looked down at the other girl-woman-and smiled. Fina had fuller, more perfect breasts than she did. Aika had hair that made Fina jealous. They needed something to tease the other about.

She went over and sat down beside Fina, reaching for her hand and holding it gently until Fina meshed their fingers together and squeezed harder. "It's not going to be another 40 days." Aika reminded the Silvite. "A week. You can endure a week of this."

Fina breathed in and out, the pace of it measured and controlled. "I know." She said back. "I know I can. But...It's going to take a while to convince my body of that. I'm glad that you're here."

"I'll always be here." Aika reminded her, leaning over and kissing the girl on the cheek. "I can't sleep any easier without you, remember?" Fina leaned into her side on instinct after that, and squeezed her hand extra-tight for just a second.

"I love you." Fina breathed out, tucking her head against Aika's shoulder, and a lump settled in the redhead's throat. Just hearing those words…

"I know." Aika whispered back. "I know."

She changed out of her usual outfit and into a nightgown that Fina had been thoughtful enough to grab from her room earlier, and if Fina's hands wandered over her hips or her breasts a little as she helped Aika to get her clothes off and slide it on, the redhead didn't have much reason or desire to complain about it. They had about three good kisses in the process, and each of them didn't have much of the pulsing heat that could set their blood blazing as much as a feeling of warmth and belonging and wholeness.

They settled into Fina's bed, Aika spooned up behind the Silvite with Cupil cuddled in the blonde girl's arms and Aika's arms wrapped over her abdomen.

"You don't need Cupil to be earmuffs?" Aika yawned, finding the cool bed quickly warming with their shared heat. They could hear some of the howling of the wind outside their porthole, well-insulated though it was, the current just a _little_ faster than the ship. They were taking the opening leg slower at night, because of the risk of smaller islands showing up as obstacles.

Fina's head swiveled back and forth, and then it turned so her ear pressed into the valley between Aika's breasts. "I just need this." The Silvite mumbled unapologetically. "I just need to hear you." She was drowning out the wind with the sound of Aika's heartbeat, and that thought made Aika's pulse quicken for a short time. She pulled the blanket up and over them a little more in response.

Her eyes fluttered shut as they fell into a cycle of shared, easy breathing, and Aika was almost asleep when Fina's soft voice cut through the silence of their bedroom.

"I fell in love with you then."

"What? When?" Aika asked, not bothering to open her eyes.

"The first night you climbed into my bed and held me so I could sleep." Fina answered her, yawning. "And every night after, I fell in love with you a little bit more."

Aika thought about that for a period of time she couldn't count off. And then she remembered the very first night that they'd cleared the Southern Ocean, and she couldn't sleep for the lack of noise. She remembered how Fina had looked at her for a long time before telling her to scoot over. How they had stared into each other's eyes, Aika in confusion and Fina with something unknowable before Fina had kissed her forehead. "Before…" Aika tried to stay, and the words stuck in her throat as the memory and _the truth behind that first, soft, gentle kiss_ was revealed at last.

"Before Vyse." Fina hummed in agreement. "Before I knew I loved him...I knew I loved you."

There were no words for how that made Aika feel, or for how she didn't care that her eyes teared up. She just held Fina tighter, felt the softness of Fina's belly through the fabric of her nightgown, brought a hand up until she could rest her palm over the Silvite's beating heart and stroke the side of a breast that rose and fell with every breath and soft sigh of approval.

"I love you." She whispered the words into Fina's sweet-smelling hair, the only words that mattered.

They fell asleep, and the winds outside didn't matter.

* * *

_The Southern Ocean_

_152 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The engines, to Aika's surprise and satisfaction, were handling the constant use rather well. Of course, they were flying _with_ the air currents instead of headfirst into them, and the reciprocating engines of the _Delphinus_ were, after the refit, terrifying beasts that they weren't pushing at maximum output. They hadn't gone above three quarters flank speed in the course of the crossing yet, and with her, Hans and Lapen all able to handle shifts and monitor the lubrication and temperature gauges of the machinery, no worrisome mistakes were being committed by anyone for lack of sleep. They kept up a massive chalkboard laid out with a grid for dates, specific 4 hour increments, and the six sections of the reactor piping, turbines, reciprocating engines and propellor shafts most likely to suffer overheating and fatigue and failure.

The _Delphinus_ was a marvel of modern engineering, able to even seal off the interior compartments and pressurize them at standard atmosphere for the rare occasions the ship flew to the edges of its rated Central Sky altitude highs and lows. One thing that it didn't have effectively, though, was heating that could completely keep up with the demands of the interior atmosphere, which was what allowed Aika to pick up on when the current flowing off from the bitter cold sky rifts to the south of the Southern Ocean started to overwhelm the weakening flow of warm air from Ixa'taka to the far west, Lunaleagues away. Everything inside the ship got a little bit chillier, and the crewmembers who had never felt a cold day in their life suffered the worst as they started throwing on layer after layer of extra clothing. Tikatika the lookout and Merida the dancer were the most prominent examples, but even Osman took on an appearance that made Fina giggle and remark privately to Aika afterwards that she looked like a 'walrus.' Whatever kind of creature that was. Khazim, on the other hand, didn't even bother putting on a proper shirt. He insisted on going bare-barrel chested as a point of pride.

The cold air immediately had Vyse on edge and spending more time on the bridge than his shift would usually call for. And Fina, who had been burning off her nervous energy being anywhere and everywhere on the ship from running food to people who couldn't leave their stations to taking shifts learning basic first aid and non-magical medical treatments with 'Uncle Ilchymis' was spending more time up on the bridge keeping an eye on him.

So when Fina came down into the engine room with a _look_ on her face, Aika didn't waste time asking ridiculous questions about the obvious. She just stepped away from the section of secondary piping she'd been tightening up, stuck a pair of fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly enough to get the attention of Hans, standing a fair distance away next to the main steam fittings and recording down the gauge readouts. Hans about jumped out of his skin as he looked over, glaring at her, and Aika didn't bother looking sheepish. She just met his stare head-on until he wilted and realized she had a reason for getting his attention, and then Aika gestured to her work and mouthed the words, _finish up for me._

Not wasting another second on him, glaring up a storm as she headed for the stairs and the elevator that would take them to the next deck up with Fina hot on her heels, Aika tried to calm herself down. It didn't work, and once the doors closed on them, she swore and slammed a fist into the side of the elevator wall.

"How bad is it?" Aika growled out, once she was done fuming.

"He is refusing to leave the wheel and I'm refusing to give him any more coffee." Fina said, bringing the main problem up very succinctly.

"You? Not giving him coffee?"

"Coffee is never supposed to take the place of sleep." Fina muttered. "And I doubt he's slept any in the past two days. He's worried, Aika. Really, _really_ worried."

"Laurence can…"

"He doesn't think that he can." Fina cut her off. "He's taking two shifts at the wheel for every one that Laurence does. We need another helmsman and Navigator. It's bad enough that even _Enrique_ is asking for lessons, even though he's nowhere near ready enough to navigate the storms."

"...Shit. We're in Typhoon Alley now, aren't we?"

"Coming up on it." The Silvite nodded. The elevator hummed as it slowed down and jostled slightly when it came to a stop. "I...I was hoping you knew what to do. Because I've tried begging with him and trying to sweet talk him around to letting Laurence take a longer shift, and _nothing_ is getting through that skull of his."

The elevator doors opened and Aika snorted as they stepped off, sweeping by Marco who stumbled out of the way with a mop in one hand as he hastily threw a salute that Aika didn't bother acknowledging with anything more than a half-hearted wave. "He can be a real _jerk_ sometimes when he gets his dander up. Stubborn as a Dhabu. If he isn't listening to sweet little you telling him to take a break…" Aika's footsteps slowed a bit, and she exhaled. "Right. How's your training going with Ilchymis?"

"Um. Fairly well."

"You have medical privileges, right?"

"I can revive the dead. Yes." Fina said, a talent that Aika was intimately familiar with. One close call at the hands of Piastol had been enough, thank you _very_ much.

"Good. Because you're about to invoke physician's privilege."

The walk up to the bridge didn't take nearly as long as Aika thought it might, and when they stood in the hatch and saw Vyse at the wheel with a row of typhoons spinning wildly in the wide open span before them, her heart stuttered a bit before she wrestled control of it. Enrique's head shot up as he noticed their presence, and he looked from them to Vyse and then back again with his eyes wide open. Pleading.

Well, if _that_ didn't immediately give Aika reason to full-on scowl again. She stormed past Enrique and Tikatika and Domingo, startling the explorer and navigator, before coming to a stop behind Vyse.

"Captain." Aika bit the title out. Vyse flinched a little and looked back, then relaxed a hair and nodded.

"Aika. Everything okay in the engine room?"

"Everything's fine down belowdecks, captain." She waited two beats. "You don't look too good, though."

His face hardened up. "I'm fine, Aika. Just have a lot of sailing to do yet, is all. We're entering typhoon alley."

He wasn't fine. The bags under his eyes were very pronounced, and there was a tremor in his hands. He was wobbling slightly, even.

"Vyse. When's the last time you slept?"

"I was off-duty six hours ago."

"Yeah, not what I asked." She countered, crossing her arms. "When. Did you. Sleep. Last."

Vyse's face went from a mask to a scowl. "I'm fine."

"The hell you are. Enrique? Go wake up Laurence, or if he is awake, drag his ass up here. Domingo? Take the wheel. I'm relieving Captain Vyse of command until he gets a full eight hours of shut-eye and some proper food and downtime."

"Under what authority?" Vyse demanded, and everyone on the bridge tensed up at that. "Aika, don't do this…"

"Under medical authority." Fina cut in, and her voice was steel wrapped in silk as she glided forward, assessing him. "Heart palpitations. Erratic pulse. Balance is off. Tremors. You're in no shape to pilot a ship right now, Vyse, not when we have alternatives. I can get Ilchymis to come up here and diagnose you himself as the ranking medical officer, or you can stop being such an _ass_ about this and come quietly. This is _not_ a mutiny. You will retake command of this ship once you finally get some sleep." She stepped into his personal space and went up on her toes, pressing her forehead against his and closing her eyes. "All right?"

She could sense him working through it, feel how the skin of his forehead shifted as he clenched his jaw tight.

When he accepted the verdict, he nearly collapsed against her as whatever tension he'd used to coil himself up and keep going started to give out.

"Shit! Vyse!" Aika yelled, running to them as Fina struggled to hold him up. "Domingo! Take the wheel!"

"On it, boss!" Domingo yelped, quickly leaping over and grabbing the telemotor before the winds could whip the ship around too badly. "Damn, it's fighting me." He gasped, shifting into position to grab it with both hands.

Aika put it out of her mind, all of her focus solely on Vyse as she took one side of him while Fina grabbed the other. Enrique trundled up to stand in front of them, and Aika waved him off.

"It's okay, Enrique. We've got him."

"Is he going to…"

"I'm _fine."_ Vyse slurred.

"The hell you are." Aika repeated. "Enrique, you have the bridge. Domingo's helmsman until Laurence gets up here. You're going to want to set a course northwest for a while, then switch for straight north. You get too close to a cyclone and it starts to draw us in, you tell Laurence to fly into it just enough to catch the outer edge and whip _around_ it." Her brown eyes bored into the prince's. "You remember all of that?"

Enrique's head bobbed up and down rapidly. "Yes, ma'am." He answered her. "We'll take care of things here. And...you'll take care of the captain?" The prince asked hopefully, the lift of his eyebrows perhaps just a little too...suggestive? Of what?

"Of course we will." Aika told him roughly, and then she and Fina guided Vyse off of the bridge, down the hall to the stairs, and to the next deck down where the captain's quarters were located.

"This is mutiny." Vyse mumbled, sweating wildly now that they were off the bridge. Like his body had decided it finally could. "Mutiny. You two, bossing me around…"

"We're always bossing you around." Fina reminded him dryly. "You're not usually this much of a prick about it."

"Where'd you learn that word?" Aika muttered softly. Fina just smiled.

"It's a big ship." she provided, which was a non-answer if ever there was one.

They forced Vyse down to sit on the edge of the bed, where he sat breathing unevenly and looking at them through glassy, slightly unfocused eyes.

"I've tried sleeping. I've _tried._ I can't, I just...I can't." Vyse muttered, looking between the two of them. "Bed's always too empty, too quiet. And the ship needs me. If I'm not there, we could end up wrecked. This ocean, it...it's dangerous. That we made it through the first time was a miracle. Sure, flying's easier, but we're going so fast, so fast that if something goes wrong, we'll barely have time to react, and Laurence doesn't…"

"Laurence will be _fine_." Aika cut him off. "You've been showing him how to fly this Ocean for days now. He knows how serious he needs to take this. He's a member of your crew, he took the Oath. Are you telling me that you don't trust him? That you don't trust a fellow Blue Rogue?"

Vyse slumped under her withering questions. "I...you're right. No, I trust him. It's just...Everyone's counting on me."

The two girls sat beside him, squeezing him in the middle, and Fina brought a cool washcloth up from where she'd grabbed it off of his washstand to wipe the sweat off of his face.

"You're no good to anybody if you're too exhausted to be the captain properly. You need to sleep." Fina told him sadly.

"I can't!" Vyse snapped. "I tried, I really did, but…"

Aika caught on first, and wrapped her hand around his jaw, turning him around to look at her. "Why didn't you come to us?" She demanded. "We _told_ you, if you had trouble sleeping…"

Vyse looked ashamed. "I did. The first night. But you two looked...you were so peaceful together. So beautiful. I didn't want to wake you up. I didn't belong there, crowding that bed. I know how you struggled with the Southern Ocean, Fina. I know how it was only staying with Aika that helped you get through it. She helps you sleep through this. You…"

Vyse closed his eyes. "You didn't need me."

There were some days that Aika wanted to scream at this man, who could be so wonderful and thoughtful and then could turn around and just do and say the _dumbest things_ she'd ever heard. She settled for an angry grunt and for shoving him back against the bed.

"I need you." Aika hissed, crawling over him and pinning his arms to the bed. She straddled his chest with her hips before leaning down and branding his mouth with a blistering kiss. "Moons, you are so _stupid_ sometimes. I need you, and Fina needs you, and this ship needs its captain. You thought we would turn you down? That we'd kick you out of our bed and tell you to sleep alone? That we didn't want you crawling in and crowding us? That we don't want that, always?"

Fina was up beside the both of them then, kissing Vyse when Aika pulled back up and away, then kissing Aika's cheek in turn. "The most important rule, Vyse; you have to _talk_ to us about these things. How can we fix them if you don't tell us what's wrong? Aika's right. Yes, I love her, and being held by her, and listening to her heartbeat helps me to sleep and not be so on edge in this...this constant sea of storms. But I love you too, and I wanted...I _needed_ to feel you too. I need the both of you. You never worried about us being together before and feeling like you were being left out, why are you so worried about this now?"

Vyse let out a sob, and his red eyes were so strung out as he finally collapsed. "You don't know how perfect you looked, sleeping there. You belonged together."

"You foolish, _foolish_ man." Fina uttered, kissing him again. "You don't think that's what I see when you claim Aika and cradle her against you? Or what she sees when you make love to me and wrap your arms around me?" She pulled back and smiled and looked down on him, and Aika glanced between her man and her woman with dawning recognition.

Her girl was so _smart_ about the things that really mattered.

"So. What are you going to do the next time you look in on us and you see us sleeping, and can't sleep without us?" Fina purred.

Vyse chuckled once and pulled off his goggle, wiping at his eyes. "Climb into bed with you and tell you to make room."

"Good." Fina leaned down and kissed him again, and this time he returned it, making Aika smile. The Silvite sat back up and nodded. "Now. Sleep."

Vyse laughed at that. "Can't sleep. Still...too awake. Nervous energy. I'm tired, but…"

Aika pressed a finger to his lips. "We're going to have to make you sleep, then."

"Yeah?" Vyse said, his brown eyes darkening. "How?"

Fina caught on and reached for the clasp on her dress as Aika started to unlace her leather armor behind her back.

"We're just going to have to wear you out." Fina hummed, as the seal on her dress hissed and the fabric slipped away from her body.

It took the both of them working in tandem, and Vyse was a little rougher than usual, but neither of them really felt like complaining. And afterwards, Vyse finally got the sleep he needed, and they got their man back.

* * *

_Delphinus Training Gym_

_155 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Being designed as a Valuan military ship, it wasn't to anyone's surprise that there were facilities set up for sparring and physical training. There were racks of free weights bolted to the floor and wall to hold them steady during maneuvers, and the weights were held down by woven steel cords with a padlock when not in use. There were even a few rowing machines. But the main draw, unsurprisingly, were the racks of blunted swords and wooden practice weapons, where Enrique and Vyse often trained when the ship was in flight and the foredeck was unavailable. Given that they were still flying through the Southern Ocean's 'Typhoon Alley' and that stepping outside was tantamount to suicide, the room had gotten quite a lot of use from nearly every member of the crew when they weren't on duty.

Aika mainly used the running track that circled the gym when she was alone, saving the weightlifting and the abdominals and leg weights for when she had Fina exercising with her. She'd been running for, according to the clock on the wall, a good half-hour, and had worked up quite a sweat. Two more laps, she told herself silently as she kept to her controlled breathing. Two more laps and she'd be able to grab a towel and hit the showers.

Showers. Something else that the Valuans thought to install on this ship, and there was even a small water treatment plant to reclaim what got used in cooking and the showers for use in the 'grey water' supply for the toilets or, with enough filtration, for another run through the showers again. The ship's water mains ran on a completely different circuit from the pipes that ran the steam turbines, but they drew heat off of the moonstone reactors also.

There were communal showers of course, which they had quickly divided by gender, but the captain's stateroom not only had its own toilet, but its own private shower stall as well. She'd gotten too used to the luxury of it, but she didn't have time to walk all the way up to Vyse's stateroom in her sweat-through training clothes with a towel around her neck. So, the gym's communal female showers it was then.

One more lap. And…

And Enrique pulled up alongside her, wearing his usual uniform along with his trademark beret. "Hello, Miss Aika." He greeted her cheerfully. "Mind if I join you for a run?"

"Almost...done." Aika huffed out, slowing just enough so the prince could keep pace with her. "What did...you need?" Her legs had a great burn going for them and her heart rate felt relaxed. A good time to stop.

She wasn't paying much attention to him, not really, and had both eyes forward to the part of the track she'd mentally marked off as her stopping point.

"I...Well. How are things going with Vyse?" He finally asked, after he stopped woolgathering.

"Fine." Aika grunted out, and allowed herself to slow up and then finally come to a stop when she reached her mark. Not that she stopped completely; she started walking around in a slow circle, giving her legs a chance to cool down so the muscles in her thighs and calves wouldn't cramp on her. "He's doing a lot better now that he's not manning the helm as often and actually _getting some sleep,_ so I might not need to kill him now."

"Kill hi...oh." Enrique blinked rapidly. "A joke?"

Aika toweled herself off as best as she could. "Yes, Enrique. A joke." She answered him. "I'd never hurt him. Punch him in the arm occasionally if he's being an idiot, but never hurt him."

"So you...still care for him."

"When did I ever _not_ care about Vyse?" Aika asked, confused. She turned and watched Enrique as the exiled prince floundered, his eyes darting here and there and his arms flailing.

"Um, that is, I, er…" Enrique finally stopped hemming and hawing and shrunk in on himself a little. "Miss Aika. I know that you and Captain Vyse are _close_, seeing as you kissed him and he called you 'My Aika' when we made port on Sailor's Isle."

"Yes?" Aika said, raising an eyebrow.

Enrique looked guilty, and a little irate, like something had morally offended him. "Apparently, Miss Fina was seen down in the ship's laundry a couple days ago, washing out the bedsheets from the captain's stateroom."

"Oh." Aika relaxed and shrugged. Considering how messy they'd all _gotten_ those sheets...She blushed a little and smiled as she looked down and away. "Fina had some free time, and volunteered to take care of it for him. It was awfully thoughtful of her."

Enrique stared at her, and Aika leaned away from him, a little unsettled. "Is something wrong, Enrique?"

"I...You, but she…" The prince stammered, stopping himself again and taking in a calming breath.

"Are you feeling all right?" Aika asked carefully.

"I am very confused. I...Never mind."

Aika shrugged and dismissed whatever his business was. "Well, okay. If you figure out what you were trying to say, come and find me. I'm hitting the showers and then I'm getting back to work."

"Yes. Of course." Enrique nodded. "You know that I care about you a great deal, Aika. As a friend."

"Of course I do."

"I...I just don't want to see you get hurt." He mumbled.

Aika snorted. "It's just exercise, Enrique. I wasn't running a marathon." She slapped him on the back as she walked past him, and headed for the showers. She was due up on the bridge at the top of the next bell, and more importantly, she wanted to be there. Today was the day that they were going to clear Typhoon Alley.

* * *

_Bridge_

_3 Hours Later_

The transition out of the Southern Ocean and into Nasrian airspace was a gradual thing, and it wasn't until they could make out the southern cape that anyone breathed a sigh of relief. The barest hint of a faint haze to the east beyond it marked the World's End sky rift; the only sky rift that Mid-Ocean ships had ever been able to penetrate with any success, and where the rusted and abandoned boomtown of Esperanza was said to be found.

They cheered when sands were blown by the winds across the deck, and Aika watched as Vyse settled back in the captain's chair with a sigh of relief. "Mark the time and date in the ship's log." He ordered, and the mercenary Laurence looked back at him from the telemotor. Vyse grinned at the older man. "We have successfully navigated the Southern Ocean, flying with the currents. In six days' time. Well done, all of you." Vyse beamed at his bridge crew with swelling pride, then clapped his hands together. "Enrique. Confer with Domingo and set a course for Maramba. Laurence, you have the helm."

"Aye, captain." Laurence said, for once missing his trademark scowl. He shifted in place a little, though. "Captain? Are you sure you don't want a turn at the helm?"

Aika held her breath at that, wondering how Vyse would respond. He loved flying, and the _Delphinus_ was a dream to handle. In their journey through the storm, he'd stayed at the helm, stayed in control for too long and worn himself too thin. It wasn't like him to be so wound up, but he hadn't stayed that way. Not after she and Fina got through with him.

This Vyse...This Vyse is just how she remembers him. Calm and composed, and flirty and jocular when the mood suits. He smirked at Laurence's question and stood up, setting a hand to his belt. "Laurence, I trust you to fly my ship. Besides, I'm the captain. I've got better things to be worrying about." The soft chuckles that garnered penetrated the room, and Vyse winked and waved. "Get us to Maramba. We've got shore leave waiting for us there."

"Aye-aye, captain." Laurence chuckled, and resumed his station. Vyse headed out the door, and Aika and Fina followed him out, staying quiet until they were in the corridor.

"You're such an ass." Aika teased him, bumping his hip with hers while Fina giggled from his other side.

Vyse laughed at the assertion, and made to turn for the galley and dining room. "So you've said, Aika. But Laurence can handle it. He's a good pilot."

"Doesn't make you any less of an ass some days." Aika sighed, looking over to Fina. "You ever wonder why we put up with him, Fina?"

Fina put a finger to her chin, as if thinking very hard about the question. "Is it because we love him?" She asked, her voice too innocent-sounding to be innocent.

And damn if Vyse didn't pout and look between them like he expected them to kick poor Pow.

"Yeah. I suppose we do." Aika smiled, and leaned into his side, while Fina mirrored the move.

Vyse's hands came around both their shoulders and held them close until they reached the next bulkhead door.

* * *

_Maramba_

_Evening_

Maramba's port facilities were even smaller than Nasrad's, as the bulk of major shipping through Nasr had always gone through the South Danel Strait. But with Nasrad still in shambles and the process of rebuilding being one that would take a very long time to accomplish, there were signs that Maramba was quickly becoming ascendant as Nasr's new center of trade. There were certainly more ships about than there were last time, and the Sailor's Guild office was full of foot traffic. The news of the defeat of the Ixa'ness Demons earned them a handsome sum of money, a good third of which went immediately to paying crew salaries, and then the _Delphinus_ crew scattered to the winds, intent on spending it hard and fast.

Aika, Vyse, and Fina went with Osman long enough to visit the shipwright's store and turn the woman's prodigious talents at bartering to work in getting them the best deal possible for additional ship's stores. Afterwards, they set her loose to make her trades with the local merchants and sailors, and Aika had no doubt that the canny businesswoman would be fleecing them for as much as she could. She was a member of Vyse's crew, but the five percent commission written into her contract (Because of course _Osman_ bothered with a contract unlike everyone else) gave the rotund spectacled trader reason to up her prices as much as the market would allow. It was a little too mercenary for Aika's tastes, but given that the bulk of the profits would immediately go into the ship coffers for needed supplies and incidental expenses, it was one she forced herself to live with.

Vyse had calmed down quite a lot since she and Fina had held a much needed talk with him, and the trust in his crew had been shining brightly ever since. His crew, in turn, responded with equal trust and loyalty. Somewhere over the course of the Southern Ocean, when Fina cleaved to Aika for support and they both realized Vyse needed the same, something shifted in him that was, if not broken and in need of a repair, at least misaligned. Misunderstood.

Misunderstood no longer, and he was once more the man who held half of her heart, who sailed an unfurled flag of blue, who inspired loyalty and audacity and resistance.

"Where are we going, Vyse?" She asked him, as they strolled up the steps away from Maramba's harbor and towards the city itself.

"First, to see an old friend. And then, I think, I owe my ladies a drink." He replied, calm and smiling.

Rupee Larso was thriving in his new career as an apprentice carpet weaver under his mother's guidance. The young boy in glasses adjusted his turban and beamed brightly to see the three again, and was more than happy to give them a deal for some proper rugs. "It's the talk of the whole town. Your ship is _enormous_ and did you really steal it from the Valuans?" He asked eagerly.

"Stole it. Broke out of the Grand Fortress. Blew a hole clean through it." Vyse winked at the lad. "Of course, it needed a little work. It used to be painted purple, can you believe that? Purple?"

"That is _definitely_ not your color, Mister Vyse." Rupee pouted a little, and in that honest grimacing expression, Aika could see how right they had been to encourage his passions in a less _organized crime_ direction. He would never have been the thug that his father apparently had been, that Barta tried to coax him into becoming. The boy tapped a finger thoughtfully to his chin and nodded again. "Hm. I'm thinking...yes. Momma?"

The middle-aged woman running the shop glanced over from her loom, nodding at her boy. "Something your friends need, Rupee?"

"Momma, do we still have that blue and silver diamond weave carpet back in the storeroom?"

"I think so. Nobody's been all that interested in it; the red and gold designs sell so much better."

Rupee made a face at that, then gestured for the three to follow him. They made their way back to the storeroom, and once Rupee lit the room's gas lamp, he motioned to a corner where a long rack bolted to the wall was kept covered by a dustcloth. "Middle shelf, second from the front." He told them, and Vyse and Aika went over and retrieved the roll of heavy fabric, bringing it into the middle of the space. Rupee unrolled just enough of it for the pattern to become visible, and adjusted his turban. "There, see? Silver diamonds on a blue background. I actually finished this one up last month, but...well. You heard my mom. No buyers for it." The boy smiled and pulled off his glasses, cleaning them on his shirt.

It was beautiful, and warm, and was _definitely not_ in the usual Nasrian style. Fina made a noise somewhere between dismay and approval and pressed a hand to her mouth, while Vyse just nodded appreciatively from his end of the roll.

Aika sighed, realizing she would need to talk for them all again. "I think we'd love to buy this one from you, little Rupee."

"You would?!" The boy exclaimed brightly. "Oh, jeepers, that'd be terrific! It'll be my very first sale that's all my own work!"

"Then we're paying full price for it." Vyse decided, chuckling. "No friends and family discount for your first sale, okay?"

"I...If you insist." Rupee said, coming down from his high. "But it doesn't feel right. Can I give you something else as a gift then?"

"You have another one of these carpets lying around?" Aika asked him.

"No. But I have something else." Rupee hinted slowly. He put a hand to his mouth and shouted. "Barta!"

All three of them jumped a little when the massive bear of a man who had fought them alongside Rupee came lumbering into the storehouse, still wearing the same goggles and sporting the same braid behind his head that he'd had almost half a year ago. Barta stared at them all for about three very uncomfortable seconds before turning to address the boy.

"You called for me, little master?"

"Yes, Barta. I'm selling a carpet to our friends here. Could you wrap it up and make arrangements to have it delivered to their ship? When are you departing, Vyse?"

"Tomorrow. Mid-morning." Vyse told him. Barta grunted in reply and took the roll of rug from them, using one arm only, and marched off with it.

Aika waited until he was gone to pepper Rupee with the question she could see sitting high on their minds. "So. Barta's still with you?"

"They all are. The whole clan." Rupee shrugged. "I mean, I told them that they didn't have to, that they could go keep doing...well, the pirate-y things that my father did if they still wanted to, but Barta about fell apart crying. I didn't have the heart to send them away. So, now they run our deliveries and do most of the heavy lifting."

It was ridiculous to think of a hardened crew of Nasrian sky pirates just _walking away_ from their lifelong careers to lug fabric and finished woven rugs and carpets around, and yet that was exactly what happened.

Aika lasted five seconds before she broke down laughing herself sore. Vyse and Fina only made it to six.

Afterwards, Rupee invited them up to the apartments that he and his mother shared above the workshop, and poured them a steaming cup of spiced tea in a small kitchen full of the aroma of coriander and garlic and smoked tubers. They sat and drank while Rupee excused himself, and when he came back, he was carrying a broad hat-box in his arms.

The boy set it down in the middle of the table, popped the lid off of it, and then stepped back. Vyse leaned over and peered inside, then reached a hand in and came back out with an impressive black tricorn hat-lined with deep blue felt and tipped at the corners with satin of a bolder, sky-colored blue and sunset red.

"This was my father's." Rupee explained, while Vyse held the hat aloft and turned it about to see it from every angle. "He always said it was older than it looked."

True, the tricorn hat was very much outdated; The style had been popular a century and a half, two centuries ago. But this hat, for all the wear and use it had seen and carried, with the faint traces of gunsmoke and moonstone powder that clung to it, was in very good condition.

"You're giving me your father's hat." Vyse said, sounding distant and more than a little surprised. "Why? Rupee, shouldn't you wear it?"

"My father was a warrior. He came from a line of them." Rupee shrugged. "Supposedly, an ancestor of ours even fought and sailed with Daccat himself. But I'm not a warrior, so...I think it should go to someone who will use it."

Vyse nodded, and Fina reached a hand over and plucked the hat from him, her arm lined in silver light. She startled a little and stared at the hat with wondering eyes.

"This hat has...some very, _very_ powerful Workings placed on it." Fina explained to them all. "Beyond ones that keep it protected and in good shape...Moons. I don't think I've ever seen a piece of clothing so steeped in power." The glow in her arm and in the thin ring behind her eyes dropped out, and she turned to look at Rupee. "How...where did…"

Rupee made a face and looked away. "I didn't know about the magic. I just remember that my dad always wore it when he went out on missions. He used to boast that 'the power of our ancestors' flowed through it. That the strength of those who wore it before us carried on."

Fina nodded, handing the hat back to Vyse. "There is a very strong imprint of spiritual power in it, Vyse. I think...I think if you wore it, you would feel a difference."

Vyse fingered the hat for a few more seconds, then slipped it on. He shivered a bit as it settled in around his brow, then ran a finger along the leading edge of the three-cornered hat.

And then the lovable goof had the gall to grin and wink at them. "Well? How do I look? More handsome than usual?"

Fina giggled, and Aika sighed and covered her face with her hands. "Rupee, you've turned him into a monster."

Rupee laughed a little. "Well, he _is_ a pirate, after all."

"Sometimes." Vyse allowed, taking the hat back off and setting it in its box. "The rest of the time, I'm happy just to be a rogue. Thank you, Rupee. We will put it to good use."

Rupee gave them all a smile. "I know you will. You're fighting for all the right reasons, from the rumors going around about you." He bowed, they finished their tea, and then walked back out into the rapidly cooling Maramba night.

Vyse breathed, hatbox tucked under his arm, and smirked once they were outside. "Okay. _Now_ we can go get that drink."

* * *

The tavern Vyse took them to required a Dhabu ride across the still warm sands from the main portion of the settlement to one further inland along a winding trail marked off by posts with windswept and ragged swaths of red cloth tied to them.

It was full of memories; the last time they had been here, the three of them had been trying to figure out their options in the aftermath of being marooned by Drachma. It was the same tavern where Admiral Belleza, in disguise and in character as an exotic dancer from Nasrad, had first tried to work her wiles on Vyse and 'offer her help' to them, just so she could have them do the work of retrieving the Moonstone Crystal for her.

Those memories were sifted, brought up, reviewed, and then cast away in moments as the three of them realized that fully half of their current crew was all packed away inside, singing sailor's songs and getting well and truly blazed. The three of them stayed in the stifling warmth of red faces and sweaty bodies for exactly two rounds of ale and one retelling of the First Grand Fortress Escape (Marco needed no help in telling, and slightly embellishing, the story of their first escape with Enrique there to support his claims) before they waved off any additional offered drinks, citing a need for the most senior officers of the _Delphinus_ to stay somewhat clear-headed, and stepped back out into the night with a wave of well-wishing noise following them until they closed the doors.

Vyse breathed out loudly and shook his head. "Forgot that part." He admitted.

"That sailors love to drink?" Aika offered wryly.

"That sailors love to try to get _me_ to drink." Vyse muttered. "That's a good thing about being their captain; I can tell them no when I've had enough."

Fina hummed, then glanced across the street from the tavern to a rounded stone hut built in the style of a tent, and sporting heavy and brightly covered fabrics over the entryway. A sign out in front of it declared it proudly as "Mistress Kalifa's Domain: Fortunes Told."

"I remember that." Fina hummed. She nudged Vyse's arms. "Remember when we went to see her?"

"I remember being cajoled into it." Vyse said flatly. "But her fortune was very non-specific. Like most fortunes."

"_Mind the currents, you cannot fight them forever._" Fina repeated in a solemn voice. "You see me work magic almost every day, Vyse."

"What she does isn't magic." Vyse argued.

"Isn't it?" Fina pressed. "Come on. The least we could do is check in with her."

The hut was as dimly lit and smelled strongly of potpourri as Vyse remembered it from what seemed like a lifetime ago. Kalifa herself was a woman who appeared to be in her 20's, and dressed in functional and revealing garments that hugged her curves. She sat cross-legged behind the low table in her front parlor, a steaming mug of tea in one hand and a long-handled tobacco pipe curling wisps of smoke into the air in the other...though the smell coming from it was not the usual harsh scent Vyse associated with the smokers across Mid-Ocean.

Eyes hidden behind thick glasses, Kalifa stirred to wakefulness as they approached and sat down at the round table in a line across from her. Her long brown hair fell down to the bottom of her ribs across her torso, and she quirked her mouth into a little half-smile before taking another long puff on her pipe. She breathed out the smoke into the air above their heads, adding to the room's thick haze, and set the tea mug down so she could stretch her pale, barely sun-touched arms above her head, languoring much like a cat would after a nap.

"The three return." Kalifa mused, cocking her head to the side as she took in the sight of them. "Weathered by storms and torrents. Yet I sense newfound strength and resolve in you." She reached for her mug of tea and nodded. "Greetings, children of the silver moon."

Vyse blinked. "Uh. Huh." He said, flatter and slower than usual.

"Did you mind the currents?" Kalifa asked him, not bothering with further platitudes.

"What currents?" Vyse demanded. "This is why I don't take fortunetellers seriously, everything you say is so non-specific so people leave thinking you told them exactly what they needed to hear, and…"

Aika hissed and slapped him in the arm. "Vyse, you're being rude!" Which did get him to settle down and look a little apologetic.

Kalifa shook her head. "The currents around you three. They swirled and clashed before." She took another puff on her pipe. "They flow together now."

Aika felt a thump in her chest at the words, and stared hard at the woman. Did Kalifa...did she know?

Fina didn't even ask it silently. "How did you know?" The Silvite asked the fortuneteller. "About us?"

Kalifa shrugged. "I can be mysterious, but really, I saw how you both looked at him the moment you came inside back then. And I see how you sit now, how you place him between you, but hold hands behind his back and think that I would not notice."

Aika jumped a little, and realized that she had in fact grabbed for Fina's hand behind Vyse's waist, using that familiar touch to ground herself.

Kalifa just smiled. "Good." She said, nodding again as her smile faded away. "Don't let go of each other." She set her pipe aside and clapped her hands together. "So. What brings you to Mistress Kalifa tonight, hm? Seeking further wisdom and guidance from the Moons themselves? Offer tribute for their wisdom, and Kalifa will reveal all!"

Vyse chuckled, reaching for his coinpurse. "What do the Moons need with money?"

"Nothing. But I enjoy eating." Kalifa retorted, earning an honest laugh out of him. Vyse set a handful of gold coins on the table, and Kalifa's hand shot out and swept them up almost before he let go of them.

"Can you really hear the Moons?" Fina asked, reaching a hand across the table with her palm up. "Do they really speak to you, Kalifa?"

Kalifa was silent for a moment, then reached for Fina's hand, holding it gently and tracing the lines in the young woman's palm with a fingertip. "I get feelings." Kalifa answered her, and the haughty and commanding presence in her voice was gone as she spoke then, as she reached for honesty in her response. "I have since I was little. Hunches, nudges. Tiny hints that might be as simple as a queasy stomach from nowhere, or a feeling of dread. We fortunetellers promise much, daughter of the Silver Moon. We must. But the things we feel, the things we hear...most are not ready for them. The ones we could help the most are the ones who are the most afraid to ask. And we can rarely ever help ourselves."

It was a moment of pure honesty, and something in the thick air seemed to go still and then _thrum_ through Aika as she sat up and listened for it. Fina swallowed loudly and pulled her hand back, nodding ever so slightly.

Aika had felt something then, and she didn't know how to describe it. Kalifa sat there, rocking back and forth for a few moments, then as if stirring awake again, she centered her gaze on Vyse.

"What guidance do you seek, Lord of Rogues?" Kalifa intoned lowly, and she reached for the octahedral translucent white glass sitting before her, with a small, tiny beating heart of red moonstone within it. "How may I guide you?"

Vyse stared at her. "I'm no Lord." He told her. Kalifa just smiled, and Aika shivered again. Vyse sighed and waved a hand at the soothsayer. "All right. I'll humor you. We're leaving for Esperanza tomorrow, and the Dark Rift. Any advice?"

Kalifa touched the amalgam of cheap glass and semi-precious moonstone in front of her, and it lit up and rose into the air, spinning slowly at first, and then picking up speed.

She reached her hands out towards that spinning surface, never touching it directly, but hovering her palms over the edges, and faint sparks of power arced between her and the stone, and she threw her head back and panted.

The heaviness in the still air of her hut increased further, and the already dim light seemed to fade further, until Aika could only see the shadows of light over Vyse's face, and under Fina's veil.

"The Storm beckons. A fortress guards the way. Stand and face it, and it will break the spine." Kalifa's breathing came faster then. "Learn to...dance in the wind!" She screamed, and jerked back away from the stone, slumping in on herself and pressing her hands to her head.

The heavy feeling in the air disappeared, and Kalifa let out a low groan as the lights came back up again.

"I'm all right." Kalifa breathed, not moving, barely breathing.

"You're hurt." Fina pointed out sympathetically. "Does that...does fortunetelling hurt you? Why do you do it then?"

Kalifa cracked a sick little laugh at the question. "Because I must." She finally let go of her head and sighed, shaking it slowly. "Though usually, the Moons are kinder. You needed to hear that, Vyse of the Blue."

"It's just Vyse." He insisted. "Only Vyse. Or Captain, if you prefer."

Kalifa cracked another short laugh at that, still shaking her head. "We never see our own road." She mumbled to herself, and sat up straighter at last. "Usually."

Aika and Fina looked at each other as Kalifa finished coming back around, and then turned back when the Nasrian woman cleared her throat. "I will come with you."

"Pardon?"

"Your ship. Your crew. When do you depart?" Kalifa rephrased.

"...Mid-morning. Tomorrow. But I didn't ask you to come." Vyse told her.

"Does the land ask for rain to fall on it? Does the desert ask the wind to blow across it?" Kalifa countered crisply. "There is no asking. There is only what must be." She tapped the crystal again, and it settled back onto its base. Kalifa stared at him. "One shall stand. One shall fall."

Vyse shut his eyes. "What could you do for my crew?"

"Entertain." Kalifa smiled. "I would think there are many who might find a fortuneteller to be a source of endless amusement."

"When you're not passing on cryptic advice."

"Not everyone understands what the Moons tell them." Kalifa mused, grabbing her teacup. She held it up to her lips, but did not drink right away. In defiance of the enigmatic persona she presented, Kalifa reached for her thick glasses and lowered them, staring at the three of them over the rims with sad green eyes. "Not right away. Will you understand, when the time comes?"

"If you help us." Fina offered, shaken. Kalifa's gaze swiveled over to the Silvite and, if anything, grew sadder for it.

Then she slipped her glasses back on and stood. "I shall serve the Blue." She told Vyse, bowing to him. "I will be at the docks at first light. Have a boat ready to take me to your ship, Captain Vyse." Then she retreated into the back, past a curtain of beads over the doorway to her private quarters, and left Aika, Fina, and Vyse to sit and stare at each other in wonder and concern.

"Should we be worried about bringing her on board?" Aika asked them.

"She's a headache waiting to happen." Vyse muttered. "But only if you listen to her nonsense."

"It's not nonsense. She was right about us." Fina insisted. "I think we'll be glad to have her aboard. And besides, she is right about being useful. Right now, all we have is Merida for entertainment, and one dancer isn't enough when that poor girl is also running shifts in the kitchen with Polly. We'll be glad for the diversion, I think. Or our crew will be, anyways."

Aika shrugged, not really seeing the point in arguing about it, while Vyse just sighed and surrendered to her opinion. He was a good captain; he knew what was worth fighting over and what wasn't.

"We'll give her a chance." He told Fina. "Like we did with Osman. Who knows? Maybe it'll work out."

Fina smiled at that. "And you wonder why people follow you." She told him warmly. "Come on. The crew will likely stay onshore tonight. We need to decide where we're going to put our new rug."

They got up and headed for the door, and Aika's hand came around Fina's waist, holding her close while Vyse followed behind and chuckled.

"I'm sure you have all kinds of ideas." Aika teased her.

Aika often marveled at the miracle her life had become, and who she was blessed enough to spend it with. She couldn't wait to see what the rest of it would look like. Tomorrow morning, they would set sail for Esperanza and the Dark Rift.

Together.


	26. The Town At The Edge Of The World

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Twenty-Six: The Town At The Edge Of The World**

There once was a time when Don was proud to call himself a sailor of the Valuan Royal Navy. His father had been a lieutenant in the service of the King before he retired, and was an old man when he married Don's mother. He never recalled a time growing up where his father's hair wasn't gray, even though it had mottled spots of brown when he was a young boy. He remembered how proud his father was when Don signed up to become a sailor in the Royal Navy, how there had been tears in the old man's eyes and in his mother's when they had held him tight along the docks, before he sailed off.

It hadn't been long before the Valuan-Nasrian War started in earnest, but Don had been lucky; his ship and his crew had been tasked with a different mission than the drudge of steady warfare and blockade lines. A report from forward scouts led to the discovery of a cape to the south of Maramba and the great Nasrian Desert, just past the World's End sky rift, and beyond it, an enormous black sky rift unlike any other ever seen in Mid-Ocean. King Mathias himself had advocated for a mission to try and pierce through the Dark Rift, as it became known, to seek out what might lie beyond. As the stories went, there were lands that only the legendary Air Pirate Daccat had ever seen to the east, but the general consensus was that the Dark Rift was the edge of the world. Still. Better to seek the unknown than to die in a war.

In short order, a fortified boomtown, bristling with cannons and defense works was erected just past the tip of the Cape of Good Hope, and they called it _Esperanza. _It was an archaic Valuan word that translated to 'hope', and for many, for Don, it was exactly that.

But then, one failure after another stacked up. Ships tried to sail into the Dark Rift and were torn apart by shear force winds. They probed and found a weaker point in the rift that might be used as an entrance, but there again, the ships that tried for it were lost inside or so badly damaged that they returned to Esperanza as little more than salvage, their crews ranting about 'lost lands in the void.'

The loss of King Mathias, and the ascendency of the Admiralty in the wake of his passing and the declaration of the kingdom becoming an Empire sounded the death knell for the ill-fated mission to the east. The Admiralty recalled the ships and crews that were still functional for the war effort, and for those who had been unfortunate enough to lose their ships and somehow come back alive, they were notified of their discharge from the fleet and abandoned in the boomtown settlement that found itself forgotten by all but the crustiest merchants who sailed from Maramba.

In desperation, Don's captain refused the order to withdraw and asked for volunteers among those who remained for one last attempt at piercing the Dark Rift. His captain had been a proud man who had grieved deeply for the loss of the king, and grieved all the more for what their country was turning into. Don had been one of the volunteers who went, for he refused to let their efforts and sacrifices amount to nothing. It all had to be for something.

In that last voyage, they got further into the Dark Rift than anyone had before, far enough that they realized just how thick the wind walls actually were.

Far enough that they got past the expected dangers and stumbled headfirst into new ones. Past the outer barrier was a maze of ship graveyards from the other expeditions and even from before, unexpected greenery and bizarre flora, and so many divergent tunnels swirling about that they were kicked back out; kicked back out, with their engines failing from the strain, and the ship battered when the rift turned unpredictable and gouged into them.

The order to abandon ship was given. Don, a helmsman and navigator extraordinaire, didn't even have time to save the logbook. He was one of the few whose lifeboat wasn't torn apart and scattered in the unending wild winds. The captain never made it out. Too many of his crew, his friends, also perished.

Don never sailed again after that. He limped back to Esperanza, crawled into a bottle, and forgot his dreams and his ambitions behind a veil of inebriation. The Dark Rift, it was said, was the edge of the world. They had dared to try and go beyond it.

It was no place that men were meant to sail past.

* * *

_Esperanza_

_158 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Esperanza had one chief import, and Don was likely one of the main consumers of it. Alcohol, served in abundance from bottles of rum and whiskey and cask after cask of beer flowed into Esperanza aboard the ships of the Nasrian merchants and black marketeers who did business with them. Goods in the form of ammunition that had never been fired and parts for ships that had either crashed into the terrain around Esperanza when they couldn't dock properly or had been scrapped before the fleet recall flowed outwards. The last vestiges of what been Valua's last, noble endeavor were being sold off as scrap for food and liquor, and there was nothing that could be made which would sustain them.

He woke up huddled against the side of the tavern with his head aching and his stomach growling at him. He pulled his faded coat tighter around his thinning frame and lurched to his feet, making for the door. There were only a few patrons inside at the crack of the morning; more would pour in as the day dragged on.

Behind the counter, Fatima glanced up as he stumbled in and made for his usual table in the back. The woman was in her mid or late 30's, and hailed from Maramba originally. She'd never sought passage back home, in spite of the merchants who came and went. It wasn't Don's business to know why, and he never asked. Her pain was hers to deal with, and there wasn't anyone left in Esperanza who didn't have enough of their own troubles without looking for the sob stories of all the miserable bastards around them.

He dropped a coin on the bar as he passed by, and after he slumped into his usual chair at his usual table and leaned up against the wall, she showed up and dropped a tankard in front of him along with a plate of pasty and tasteless slop. Don grimaced and pushed the plate away, took a drink, and grimaced again.

"Oi, Fatima. I didn't want beer. And I sure as hell didn't order the gruel."

"You didn't pay enough for rum, you reprobate." Fatima countered churlishly, and Don dug in his tunic for another coin or two. His pockets came up empty, and with a scowl, he started nursing his warm beer. It didn't numb him like the stronger spirits his body was accustomed to, but it would delay the tremors and the shaking that always came from withdrawals.

The trouble would be finding a new source of income. As much as his body protested, he shoveled the gruel down his gullet. And then he leaned back and tried to ignore how his back and his head screamed at him.

He made it an indeterminate number of minutes, or hours if he was lucky, before someone came running into the tavern with a very rude and a very loud clanging of the metal doors. "A ship's coming in!" The sailor gasped, and others in the room stirred. Don kept his eyes closed and focused on the throbbing in his skull. "It's a warship! I've never seen the like, but it's making to dock off the harbor, and…"

"Shut up." Don groaned, grabbing his empty plate and hurling it like a discus in the general direction of the chatterbox. The metal plate hit the floor with a loud clang that made Don hiss and flinch again, but it had the desired effect of making the man go running off.

Fatima clucked as she came over and refilled his mug. "Now was that necessary? Considering the headache is your own doing?"

"S'better." Don mumbled. Better than being sober. Better than thinking too hard about things. Better than remembering. He preferred the numbness, or when he couldn't have that, the aches and pains of his worn out bones.

Whatever hubbub was being caused about that ship, the noise was outside of the tavern instead of inside where it could annoy him, and in time, Don found himself slowly waking up. He trudged out and made his way back to his cramped quarters, retrieving his coinpurse and finding just enough spare change to afford a few stiff belts. He'd have time for one before he'd have to stop and retain just enough sobriety to go seeking out the merchants for a trade.

But what to trade…

All of his worldly possessions were cut down to what he'd been able to fit into a single stuffed steamer trunk, and over the years, the more precious items had slowly been sold off. Aside from his clothes and what was left of his old naval uniform that he wasn't already wearing, there were only two personal items left inside, and he had held onto them the longest.

The first was his cutlass, weathered with age and not cared for properly in years, but still his. It had been granted to him when he took his officer's commission in the royal navy, and it had remained with him when he'd been given his discharge papers. Even in Esperanza, where everyone's troubles were all the same, he'd never gone without a weapon. The truly desperate, those who lost their minds and sought to end it all in a last blistering display of violence had kept the need for a measure of self-defense alive and well, although he'd not carried it on him in years. Most of the suicides had happened in the first five years, and of those who were left, there hadn't been any significantly violent encounters beyond broken noses and bloody knuckles in four.

The other item was so much more precious. A gold-plated compass, his father's prize after retiring from the navy. It had been the parting gift from his parents when he'd joined up and left. It was valuable, but the sentiment meant so much more to him than the gold coins it could be exchanged for. Somehow, he'd always held off from reaching for it, for considering it as something to be traded for rum money.

Today, he strapped the sword to his waist, tucked his father's compass in his coat pocket, and stumbled out of his cramped shack back towards the tavern. He paid for a rum, collapsed back into his seat, and let the day's first real drink burn past his lips and down his throat. Don drank it slowly, intent on savoring it.

The tavern door opened and he didn't pay it any mind, even though he couldn't place who the footsteps belonged to. There seemed to be a few of them, whoever they were.

Then one of them opened their mouth and started talking, and the sedate buzz he'd been working on came to a crashing halt.

"Does anyone here know how to get through the Dark Rift?"

* * *

Don wasn't alone in his reaction. Every patron in the rundown tavern jerked their heads up at the _ridiculous_ question, and Fatima nearly hissed as she looked at the newcomers in warning. And there were four of them. _Four_ new visitors to Esperanza, when nobody who didn't have to come here or wasn't motivated by coin bothered. They were all so young, and the oldest of them, the blond-haired man in the beret with a rapier hanging from his hip couldn't be more than 25. The rest didn't even look like they were 20 yet. Don gave the girls a quick once-over, long enough to see that the red-haired girl and the striking curvy blond were both Moon-damned heartbreakers, then focused his attention on the young man who had spoken. A scar under one eye, a telescopic monocle over the other, and a scruffy mop of brown hair over a weather-worn blue sailor's coat and a red scarf. And the boy in blue was looking back at everyone's hard expressions with open _confusion._ As though he didn't know how big the hole he'd stepped into actually was.

Don snorted from the back and took another swig of his liquor. "So. The world's still full of fools." He slammed the mug down on the table and glared at him. "Kid, that's no ordinary sky rift out there. It blots out the whole horizon, dark in the day and darker at night. Take it for the warning it is and run on home."

The brown-haired kid stayed remarkably calm, even as the red-haired girl in upturned pigtails huffed and got ready to read him the riot act. He reached out and touched her shoulder, and the young woman's rant stopped before it ever got started. "Aika, would you mind giving us a minute?" He asked her.

"But Vyse, he…!"

"Please?" He asked her again, smiling this time, and she deflated, kicked the floor once, and trundled out grumbling the whole time. The other young woman gave the brown-haired boy who acted as their leader (And Don had pegged the older one in the beret as the head of the group) a glance before following the other girl out.

"Vyse, do you want me to…?" The man in the beret asked, motioning to the retreating women.

"They can take care of themselves here. I doubt there's anyone in this ghost town who could do any worse than the dregs of Nasrad managed when they were on their own." The brown-haired lad Don now placed as Vyse replied calmly. Then Vyse looked back to Don, singling him out as the only one snarky enough to say anything to them. "Sorry. The name's Vyse. Captain Vyse, of the Blue Rogues. You might have heard of us."

Don shook his head. "Nope, can't say as I have. Maybe you didn't see it on the way in, but we don't get a lot of visitors out here, and we're not exactly up to date about the comings and goings of people and places."

"Right." Vyse folded his arms and tapped his boot against the floor. "Well, two things you should know then. First, Blue Rogues live by a Code. One of the parts of that Code is that Blue Rogues never give up. So, turning around and sailing home isn't an option for us. And second, anyone who's willing to join up with me and take the Oath is welcome to leave this ghost town."

This time, the tavern filled with laughter from every corner of the room. Don laughed a little and felt his guts _burn_ as he stared at the audacity on display for them all.

"This place is the end of the world, _Captain._ You think you can fly in and spout off pretty words and empty promises and get us, get _any_ of us to jump up and leap at the chance to get ourselves killed again?" Don swigged the rest of his rum and slammed down the empty mug hard enough that it rattled and fell over onto its side. "Twenty years ago, we threw ourselves into that damned rift over and over again. More than a dozen ships are probably lying scrapped and broken and rotting inside of it, and twice that many sank into the abyss after it chewed us up and spit us back out again. Even Valua gave up on the dream of ever finding a way through! I was on the last ship that tried, and all that did was kill my captain and almost all my crewmates. Nobody can get past the Dark Rift. There's nothing past it! It's the edge of the world, and the gods put it there to taunt us!"

Vyse smiled thinly. "I have been reliably informed that there's plenty on the other side of the Dark Rift. And I think we've got a pretty good shot of making it through. Our ship isn't like any you've ever seen before."

"Yeah? You build it yourself?" Don snarked, earning some snickers, and the blond man in the beret next to him finally bristled and spoke up.

"No. The _Delphinus_ was designed in-house at the Grand Fortress by Admiral De Loco. It is the pinnacle of modern warship engineering, and the prototype for a new Fleet. Vyse _stole it_ from Valua and made it his flagship."

That announcement sobered up the others, but Don had heard promises of 'the best ship ever' before, and it had always amounted to nothing. A sturdier hull, a more powerful engine...Nothing had ever helped.

Don sighed and lay back against the wall, shaking his head. "Some things are just impossible, kid."

Vyse dropped his smirk and watched Don for a while longer, then scanned the room again. What was the kid looking for? A receptive audience?

"I want to thank you all." He said, and where before his voice had been full of humor and warmth, now it was cold and hard. Were Don more sober, less jaded, he might have flinched from it. There was something in Vyse's tone that reminded him heavily of how his former captain would speak before administering corporal punishments. "Looking around this room, and from what I've seen of this town so far, I can honestly say that you've inspired me. To do better than the rest of you all put together. I've never met a more pitiful bunch in my life."

There were only a few other sailors in the tavern with Don, but apparently they hadn't given up on life just yet. They bristled under the insult, and Don groaned softly and prepared himself for the brawl that would follow. So did Fatima; she started pulling her glass bottles off the top shelf and stowing them under the bar, out of sight and out of harm's way.

"If you lose sight of one dream, you replace it with another!" Vyse drove on, heedless of the danger he was thrusting himself into. "Because you tried something once and failed, are you going to throw the rest of your life away?"

"It got thrown away for us, kid." Don tried to temper the room's increasingly angry mood. "Valua pulled up stakes, became an Empire, and took their ships and the fresh crews. The rest of us? They gave us our discharge papers and left us here to _rot._ So you tell me, when the mission you've given your all to evaporates, and the kingdom you swore an oath to abandons you, and all you've got left is to stare at the dark skies that were the cause of it all…" He hiccuped a little and grimaced as acid burned in his throat. "...The hell kind of dream do you have left to shoot for?"

Vyse considered it. "You could leave." He offered. "You've had 20 years since Valua became an Empire. If you really _wanted_ to leave, you would have left already. I think you _like_ it here. It's easier to hide away and blame the world for changing on you than it is to reach for something else."

There should have been a barfight at that. In point of fact, Jenkins _did_ lurch out of his seat to start something, but the blond man beside Vyse just set a hand on the pommel of his thin sword and jerked on it swiftly, bringing the sheathed point up hard between the old salt's legs and nutting him with no change in his expression and only a sidewards glance for accuracy. Jenkins slumped back into his chair, his face pale and the faintest squeal rising from his lips. Then the beret-wearing fellow just raised an eyebrow and waited for anyone else to try something. Nobody else did.

The door to the tavern opened up again and everyone spun to see who was stumbling in. It turned out to be the blond-haired young woman who had accompanied the strange entourage.

"Um. Vyse?" She started hesitantly. "Aika says you need to come outside. Right now."

"What's wrong, Fina?" Vyse asked her curiously. "Is Osman driving the locals crazy?"

"No." Fina was solemn as she shook her head. "The Armada's on approach. Aika thinks they're preparing a blockade of the city."

* * *

Things hadn't been this exciting in years, and everyone was up in arms. Which, considering that most of their old muzzle-loaded muskets and cannonworks had already been carted off in years past, was more of a saying than a truth at this point. They didn't have any weapons left to them, aside from the lucky few who hadn't pawned off their personal belongings. The cutlass hanging from the cracked leather of his old swordbelt had additional weight.

Don stood up above the docks as the four newcomers watched a Valuan soldier who'd come down from the Armada flagship on a small skiff disembark. The ships of the Armada, six in all, were spaced out around Esperanza's coastline in a fashion that made escape without conflict an impossibility. Then there was the ship hovering in the harbor, so massive in size and scope that it had to be larger than the others. The lines of it were graceful and curved, like it wasn't so much meant to fly through the skies as to _dance_ through them. And just like Vyse, the fellow who claimed to be its captain, it was painted and done up in blue.

Daniels came up beside him, a flask in hand and his yellow scarf hanging from his neck. "So. The Armada." The old sailor mused, taking a swig before passing it over to Don. Don nodded in thanks and slipped back another belt himself. Rye whiskey. It burned all the way down and left a pleasant warmth in his gullet. "You know who's in command?"

"Gregorio." Don grumbled, taking in the sight of the spiked and heavily armored prows of the ships in the distance. "Has to be. Only that old man would bother coming out this far. I don't see anyone else bothering for a bunch of people they forgot about."

"He's not here for _us,_ Don." Daniels mused, taking the flask back. "He's after those pirates."

"Hm."

"Funny. I don't remember our uniforms bein' that ass ugly." Daniels pointed to the trooper, and the sad bucket on his head. The soldier did something that Don didn't expect after, though. He dropped to one knee and pressed a closed fist against his chest.

As though he were kneeling in the presence of royalty.

"What the…" Daniels murmured, and Don blinked to try and clear the blurriness from his eyes. Only one person in that group of four reacted to the soldier's sudden and unexpected move.

The blond-haired man in the beret took a step forward and made a dismissive gesture before pulling the soldier back up to his feet. He might have been smiling, but Don was in a phase of being comfortably numb, and that meant losing a little of his once perfect vision. Still. What he did see was telling.

"I don't think that Gregorio is here for the pirates either, Daniels." Don suggested. They watched as the soldier produced a letter from a satchel he was carrying, visible in the gleaming orange light as near incandescent white. "But who…"

Don's rum-soaked mind finally caught up to him, and his jaw snapped shut as he placed it.

The Prince.

Old King Mathias's boy, who'd been a shrimp of a thing when the Nasrian War had started, and who'd still been a child when his father had been killed and Esperanza was abandoned.

"What's royalty doing this far out?" Daniels asked in a hushed whisper, and the lilt in his tone meant that the sailor wasn't sure whether to be more awed or more upset with him. They all had a bone to pick with Valua, after all. "And what's he doing associating with _air pirates?"_

"Blue Rogues." Don corrected him, his voice distant. "That one in the blue coat says there's a difference."

"Hnh."

Don breathed out slowly, and watched as the soldier climbed back aboard his small ship. The two women and Vyse crowded in around the _Prince of Valua_ as he opened the letter and started reading. Don's curiosity got the better of him, and he slapped Daniels on the back. "Well, enough standing around. I'm going to go down and see what all the fuss is about."

By the time he got close enough to eavesdrop, the four had finished going over the letter. The blond-haired man in the beret (The _Prince,_ Don dizzily reminded himself) scowled and shook his head, and there was heat and sorrow mixed as he spoke.

"I can't go back, not after everything they've done." Enrique told the other three. "Even if...even if it means I have to fight him."

"You're not doing this alone, Enrique. Blue Rogues stand together." Vyse told him.

"That's not in the Code, Vyse." Enrique huffed, smiling a little.

"Well, maybe it oughta be." The red-haired girl snarked back. "Because like hell you're going up against your 'Uncle Gregorio' without us backing you up."

"Thank you, Miss Aika." Enrique praised her soberly. "I shall do my best to be worthy of your loyalty."

"You're our friend, Enrique." The blond girl, Fina, shook her head, and the veil and her hair both swayed gently in the soft breeze. "We could do no less."

There was such an ease and an openness between them all that it left Don stunned. It almost hurt to watch, and he struggled to remember the last time he'd ever felt such a sense of camaraderie, of belonging.

Decades. It had been decades. He should have drifted away and left them alone, but he couldn't. Not when they were making plans to go up against the Armada. Not when they thought they could take on six ships with just one. Not when they seemed ready to hurl themselves into an oblivion no less final than the Dark Rift. And they meant to do that too.

"You aren't actually going to fight the Armada, are ya?" Don slurred out, getting their attention. They all turned to look at him, and something desperate made him keep speaking. "It's suicide. You can't defeat the Armada, nobody can."

"We have." Vyse told him confidently. "Plenty of times."

_"And_ we've escaped the Grand Fortress." Aika the redhead added proudly.

"Twice." Fina clarified, holding up a hand with two fingers extended.

Don so wanted to call them out for what was surely a baldfaced lie. Nobody could have done all that, and yet the impish gleam in their eyes spoke truth to the idea that they had done all of that. That they had done all of that, and so much more that he didn't know about. And Enrique looked amused at all of it.

Don shook his head and wished that he'd taken Daniels' flask with him when he came down the gangway to the old and dilapidated docks. Right about now, he needed another drink. Desperately.

"So. Should I tell the town to pull up some chairs for a ringside seat to the slaughter?" He inquired caustically.

"No." Enrique shook his head. "My Un...Admiral Gregorio's letter said that he would wait until noon tomorrow. We have until that deadline to make preparations. Among the Admiralty, there is none with a greater sense of honor than Gregorio. He will hold to his word."

"Yeah." Don muttered, looking away from the four of them. "He always did."

Uneasy silence fell between them, and it was Enrique who spoke first. "I know a great evil has been done to you, to everyone who lingers here in Esperanza." The Prince's voice was thick with sorrow. "Every place I have gone in the company of Vyse and Miss Aika and Miss Fina, I have borne witness to the brutality and the thoughtless steamrolling of the Armada's might over everything in Mid-Ocean and Ixa'taka and beyond. I have stared at the smoldering ruins of Nasrad, fought against a strike force that hunted down a defeated navy and offered no quarter. I have looked into the faces of a people who were subjugated and enslaved to power the Admiralty's war machine, and I have seen that my mother and Lord Galcian have no love or warmth or _honor_ in their hearts." He bit the word out, almost growling it, and Don looked back at him in time to see a shimmer of hot tears in his eyes before he wiped them away. "I look on Esperanza and I want to scream for it. You were all pioneers, the best and the boldest of the Royal Navy in an age before my mother's Empire. That you were thrown away, cast off like ruined debris? It is another stone on the weight of responsibility that I carry. You deserved better than this. You all did. And nothing I do now can take away that pain, or absolve Valua of its guilt for the mountain of sins heaped on it. But know, sir...You have my deepest apologies for everything."

Don was used to his stomach burning. Years of too much alcohol and too little food had taken its toll on him. But it had been a long time since he felt his eyes burning, and it wasn't until he reached up to touch them that he understood why. He was crying. He hadn't cried in years.

Enrique was at his side in a moment, guiding him, helping him across the dock and moving him to take a seat on an old wooden crate. "I am so sorry." The Prince said again, and his voice broke on the words. Don couldn't bring himself to answer, and didn't trust himself to. He wasn't sure what would come pouring out of him if he did. A lifetime of pain and rage and alcohol-fueled diatribes were all surging in his blood, aching to pass by his lips, and he didn't know what would come out of him first. He didn't know if he might even draw his sword and try to attack Enrique for it.

"We have until tomorrow." Vyse stated, thankfully breaking the mood and the moment, and Enrique backed away from Don. "Aika, Fina, take the skiff back to the ship and let the crew know what's going on. Khazim hasn't opened fire on them yet, and I don't want him starting the fight early. And tell Osman to get her backside out of her cushy digs in the galley and set up some meetings with the local merchants here. We're not going to be sticking around after."

It was all movement and noise around Don after that, with the four retreating to see to their business in the harbor, or back on their ship, or in the dying ghost town he called home. Don didn't pay much attention to it, and they were wise enough to give him space.

He sat there on the crate in the middle of all his broken hopes and dreams and felt the poison of his mind and the alcohol in his body slowly sweat away in the mixture of a hot sun and the foul, chilly breeze coming off of the Dark Rift. For the first time in his life, he acknowledged the gaping wound left in him, felt it burn through his body and his soul, and felt a glimmer of clarity start to shine again. He desperately wanted another drink.

He didn't dare reach for one.

* * *

_Evening_

Sobriety, Don was finding out, was highly overrated. He was still a day or so out from the shakes if he didn't get another drink soon, but he knew it was coming. He'd gone through this cycle enough to time it out. He knew he needed a drink, that as far gone as he was, it wasn't a _want_ any longer.

Staying comfortably numb would have made the rest of the day easier to deal with. Once they'd gotten the ultimatum from Admiral Gregorio, Captain Vyse and his crew had done the exact opposite of what Don would have expected. Instead of trying to make a run for it, they kept the _Delphinus_ parked at the dock and its cannons rotated _away_ from the blockade lunaleagues offshore, perfectly visible. Members of the ship's crew disembarked and made for Esperanza, and set up a makeshift camp at the docks. A fat woman in tinted spectacles and an impressive sunhat sauntered into the town, huffing all the while, and promptly started terrifying the few merchants about. Gold and goods flowed freely between the Blue Rogues and the residents, and the local brewers and distillers (As the years had shown, any idiot could put up a still) found a new customer, although she insisted on sending samples of the higher proof alcohols back to the docks for 'further testing.'

They had a cook aboard the ship and a few helpers, and they too joined the rising noise. It took on the festive air of a party, as those Esperanzans with instruments that they hadn't pawned off set to playing jigs while roasting spits and firepits were set blazing, and everyone who came found themselves able to partake of a warm homecooked meal of assured provenance, with no payment required. They even had a dancer who dressed and looked like no woman Don had ever seen in his life that spun wildly to the music, and a Maramban fortune teller who channeled the 'will of the Moons' through her predictions.

Don had expected Vyse and his crew to be worried, to be afraid. They were bound for an encounter with the Valuan Armada come tomorrow, after all. They weren't worried. They were relaxed, unconcerned. Focused on other things. And they kept plying the same offer to every Esperanzan who came by; an offer to leave with them. To go with them as they sailed 'through' the Dark Rift. They didn't talk about sailing into it, or getting lost. They spoke with a confidence that there was something on the other side, lands of myth said to be discovered by Daccat under the Blue Moon.

The thing that confused him the most, though, was one particular tent that the Blue Rogues had erected. Separated from the food and the entertainment and the cookfires, put within the walls of the town itself, their ship's physician had set up a small field hospital, with the news of it spreading fast. Just like the food, he was charging nothing for his services. He was giving free checkups for any who wished it. The curiosity made Don saunter in.

There were a few others waiting already, and the silver-haired doctor adjusted his glasses, staying fixated on his patient as he finished mixing up an unusual draught from boiled water and a mix of herbs and roots ground together in a mortar and pestle. The blond-haired girl was in there as well, and seemed to be acting as the doctor's assistant and nurse. She took note of Don's presence and gestured him to an empty collapsible chair along the side of the tent. The person directly ahead of him was the youngest resident of the town; an attractive red-haired young woman of 24 years whose parents had both perished on one of the early expeditions.

"Laurette." He greeted her softly, sinking into the open chair. "You doing okay?"

"Well enough." She told him, keeping her voice down. She didn't look away from Fina, had kept her eyes on the girl in the strange and utterly pristine silver white gown for at least as long as he'd been in the tent. Probably longer. "What do you think about all this?"

"I think the lot of them are all a bunch of fools." Don told her plainly. "Probably." Laurette shrugged. "But there's something different in their eyes. They actually believe that they'll make it. They're so sure of it that they're here instead of making preparations for tomorrow." Don nodded. News traveled around Esperanza quickly, and the Blue Rogues were the story of the day, the year, and the decade all in one.

The surety in her voice was enough for Don to do a double take, and look at Fina more carefully than before. It took him a long while to figure out the details that Laurette had missed out on. Laurette had only ever looked into the faces of the defeated and the downtrodden. She'd never seen an optimistic face in her life, not since she'd been a little girl and her parents left her behind. It had been years, and he had to sift through memories of faces and people that he hadn't thought about in years, but Don was able to piece together why Fina unsettled him so much.

It wasn't just a sense of bravado that guided her confidence. Underneath that gentle smile and warm voice as she went through treating aches and bruises and administering healing magic as needed, there was an edge of concern. There was tension that no person could ever fully conceal.

What Laurette hadn't seen was that Fina's concern, that Vyse's zeal was tempered by _experience._ And that changed the math.

"Next." Don blinked as the doctor's voice called out again, and he startled when he realized that he was the next one in line. Laurette was being treated by Fina behind a privacy curtain, and the silver-haired and spectacled man was looking at him with warmth in his eyes. He stood up from the chair and went over, and the doctor started his examination.

It started off simple enough; the physician introduced himself as Ilchymis and started measuring Don's pulse, the rate of his breathing, his blood pressure. Ilchymis asked him about his habits, what his usual routine consisted of, any aches or pains that he was currently suffering from.

It didn't take long for the man to zero in on his alcoholism. Something sharp and intense glinted in his eyes behind his glasses.

"How much would you say you drink in a given day?" Ilchymis asked him.

"Enough." Don grumbled.

"Enough to what?"

"To not hurt."

"I see." Ilchymis _didn't_ see, but that was just the kind of thing that Don expected a physician to say. The doctor adjusted his glasses and held up a hand. "With your permission, I would like to examine you through magical means. Do I have your approval?"

Don blinked. Green magic? He'd heard of it, sure, and even seen it used in wartime, but only for the big things like stopping bleeding, neutralizing wounds that would become fatal if left untreated. The spellmages he'd known during his time in the Royal Navy had occasionally cast a Sacri healing spell, and relied mainly on their yellow magic to electrocute and hobble their foes.

"Knock yourself out." He shrugged, more curious than anything, expecting to see a locus of green light glow around the man.

Don froze up when Ilchymis's hands started glowing silver instead. The doctor held them only an inch above his body, running them along the whole of his arms, his legs, and finally his torso.

"Poisoned." The doctor said softly, bitterly. "It's throughout your entire body."

Don cracked a bitter laugh at that. "We all die sometime." He rasped. "So. How long have I got?"

"Days. Weeks. Maybe a couple of months." Ilchymis stated darkly. "The worst concentration...your liver. How you've managed to live this long, drinking as you do, is beyond me." He blinked and pulled his hands back. "Show me your arms." Don stared at him, and Ilchymis glared at him, not willing to repeat the question. Don rolled his eyes and did so, and…

The doctor made a noise that wasn't quite a gasp. Don just stared at bruises he couldn't remember getting.

"Cirrhosis." Ilchymis said, shaking his head. "Your liver's giving out on you. If we don't stop it now, you _will_ die. And painfully."

"Give me a couple of pills and call me in the morning then."

"No." Ilchymis shook his head. "No, not for this. Not in the time I have. To walk away from you and leave you only with a few capsules and no rehabilitation would be condemning you to death."

"I've been a dead man walking for two decades, Ilchymis." Don tempered the doctor's upset nerves.

"You are _not_ dying today. Or tomorrow." Ilchymis vowed, and his hands started to glow with silver light. He pressed them both over Don's stomach and held them there, and Don flinched as warmth seeped into him. Warmth beyond what hands could give through clothing. "I can take it all away at once. Draw all the poisons out of you at once. It is your best chance."

Don sucked in air as he felt _something_ begin to twist and unravel in him. His blood felt warm, too warm, and he started sweating as Ilchymis poured more of his magic, his _silver magic_ into the treatment.

Somewhere, he started getting dizzy, and he wasn't sure, but it felt like he was trembling. Don could feel it clearly when a heaving bout of nausea overtook him, and he lurched to the side and emptied out everything in his stomach.

It got very dark after that, and he couldn't move, didn't want to move, because everything hurt too much. It felt like he was burning, or drowning, being thrown into a wall over and over again.

_"..amn it! FINA! Fina, I…"_

_ "...at did you DO, Uncle?! He's…"_

_ "...stay with me, do you hear me? Shit! He's having a seiz…"_

_**"No. Too much. You did too mu…"**_

The voices were all too loud. Too panicky. Don just wanted to sleep. The darkness beckoned, and he fell into it.

The pain finally stopped completely.

* * *

_There were dreams. Don drank the heaviest at night before he passed out, trying to drown them out. Dreams of what they had always hoped for finding on the other side of the Dark Rift. Dreams of triumph and victory, and worldwide renown. There were dreams of relived memories, the people he had known, the friends and the sailors who he had lived with. _

_ There were nightmares. Nightmares of unseen monsters in the Rift. Nightmares of ships being torn apart in the winds, vessels torn apart and sent sinking into the abyss. And always one nightmare more frequent than the rest, of that last fateful voyage into the Dark Rift, when they had gotten farther than anyone else who came back alive to speak of it. When they had found an unseen land in the darkness, lush with plants that glowed like the sun and grasses that reached towards them and not the darkened skies. _

_ When they became lost, and the ship was taken by the tempest, and they abandoned ship. In his memories, Don knew that he had never seen Robinson Caruso again, hadn't seen him at all in that hurry to get to the lifeboats. But in his nightmares, he could hear Robinson screaming his name, heard over the roaring of the winds. In his nightmares, Don looked back and saw Robinson reaching for him, reaching for the lifeboat as it sailed away from the ship and condemned him to death in the maelstrom. In his nightmares, he sometimes reached for Robinson's hand, and always, _always_ his own arm was too short, his reach too slow to save him. Other times, he never reached for Robinson's hand at all. They both inspired a hurt and an ache that he had trouble weighing against the other._

_ His memories were pain, and his dreams were pain, because even the good ones of victory and success and returning home a hero were tainted when he woke up drooling on the floor, his pants soiled from dried piss, and found himself hungover and barely existing in a forgotten town at the edge of the world._

_ And he was always too much of a coward to take his own life. They all were, the ones who kept on existing, kept on trudging on and dying a day at a time, losing themselves to hopelessness and nihilism. _

_ Every time he didn't drink enough, every time he did, it was with the same hope. That he would fall asleep and that he wouldn't wake up when the sun rose on Esperanza again._

_ But he always woke up. And there was always pain._

* * *

Don came to, and there was a bone-deep ache that ran from his gut to his skull. He shifted a little, feeling that he was resting on a cot that wasn't his own. It was too new, too comfortable, it smelled too clean. He tried to shift one of his arms, and the movement was sluggish, as though he'd been sleeping for days and his body didn't know how to respond. His head turned easier, at least, and when he flopped it over onto its side, he could see the girl in the silver dress sleeping on a cot nearby, with the red-haired Aika cradling her from behind underneath the cot's thin blanket. And slumped half in a chair and half spread out over his own cot, the doctor Ilchymis was sleeping like a watchful guardian.

He wasn't sleeping very deeply, though, because he stirred as soon as Don's movements jostled the bed. The physician jolted upright and blinked rapidly before focusing in on his patient, and then was all at once both pleased and guilty.

"You're awake." Ilchymis said, a whisper in the silence. Don could see that they were all still in the medical tent erected just inside the town walls. "Thank the Moons. I thought...I had thought that…"

Don opened his mouth to say something, gagged, finding it incredibly dry. Ilchymis was quick to pass him a waterskin, and Don tipped it up and drank heavily, finding the taste of it cool and crisp and...Lacking the bite of alcohol. It took him a moment to realize that he hadn't immediately craved it, that he had only wanted something wet to dampen his throat.

"What happened?" Don coughed, finding his voice hoarse. Had he been screaming? It felt like he had been.

"I almost killed you." Ilchymis admitted, his fingers fidgeting together erratically as he looked down at the floor. "I didn't know. I thought all I needed to do was purge your body of the alcohol in it, and the poisons that had built up in your liver. I have been studying silver magic under Fina, and beyond the powers of life and death, it is also the domain of curatives, the removal of ailments. But for all I know of medicine and healing and preserving life, there is _so much more_ that I do not." Ilchymis looked back over his shoulder to where Fina was sleeping, deeply and without a care in the world. "But that girl knows of it." He went on, detached and thoughtful. "She knows so much more than I do, she doesn't _know_ what she knows, and she can't _explain it._ But she knew what was happening to you. You were lost to us in a seizure, vomiting, sweating with your heart beating out of control in a feverish state. I had taken the poison out of you. I took it too fast. She said…" Ilchymis sounded out his next words inside of his head. "What did she..._Neurotransmitters_ I think it was. That your body had become so accustomed to working with alcohol over years of you drinking yourself into oblivion, poisoning yourself, that it could not do without it. And I ripped it all out of you with my spell."

Ilchymis looked at him, and there was the sorrow and the guilt on full display. "I swore an oath when I went to learn medicine; that I would, first and foremost and always, _do no harm._ I harmed you, Don of Esperanza, and I will not ever be able to apologize enough for it. If Fina had not taken over your care, you would not be here at all. We would ha...No. _I _would have lost you last night."

Don blinked and shook his head at the naked honesty of that. "You should have let me die." He told the doctor finally.

"No." Ilchymis shook his head. "I could not. But I should have let Fina work with you from the start. She would not have been so eager to try to fix you all at once." The doctor chuffed a little. "My 'niece' has more patience than I do, and there are times that I wonder at that."

The flap of the tent pulled back, a move without any noise that would have gone unnoticed if the first pale rays of dawn didn't shine through and illuminate the outline of the figure standing in the opening.

"She knows better than any of us what's most important." Vyse replied quietly, slipping inside and strolling over to stand between Don's cot and the one Fina and Aika were cuddled up on. A faint smirk crossed his features, and he looked down at Don and Ilchymis. "It took me a long time to understand her wisdom is more than the knowledge of her mind, Ilchymis. It is the strength in her heart that defines her."

"So it is, captain." Ilchymis nodded, and returned the smile. "Come to check in on our patient, then?"

"Him, too." Vyse alluded, and went over to the girl's cot and knelt down beside it. He watched them sleep for a few moments more, then reached a hand down and gently traced his fingers across Aika's forehead, gently brushing the hair out of her face. Then he leaned in and kissed Fina with soft and gentle lips, and pulled back as she hummed and her eyelashes danced like a flutterfly's wings. Deep blue eyes opened and looked to Vyse, and Fina smiled with unbridled warmth and satisfaction as Vyse spoke again. "You have to stop performing miracles, my love."

"Stop demanding them of me, then." Fina hummed, and looked over to Don long enough to see he was awake before she closed her eyes again. "How do you feel, Don?"

Don resisted giving her a flip answer, the bitterness of him stilled in the face of that gentle and open declaration of belonging and trust and _love_ between the captain and the blond-haired young woman. "I don't feel dead."

"Do you still hurt?"

"I'm sore." He admitted.

"Considering you had your entire bloodstream and body purged of the alcohol and the necrotic elements that had been building up, that isn't surprising." Fina sighed, still making no move to get up or wake up any more than she had to. Her lucidity was impressive for as early as it was. "Ideally, you would have been given a course of low-dose pain relievers and slowly decreasing amounts of liquor to slowly wean you off of your body's dependence on it. Doing it all at once...the shock very nearly killed you. But you ended up not needing _that_ spell. You have a strong will to live, Don." She yawned.

That declaration stung at him, and Don looked away, tears coming to his eyes again. He wanted to deny that, to argue with her. His throat seized up, and his words failed him. By the time he looked back at her again, he realized that Fina still hadn't moved, hadn't even opened her eyes so far as he could tell. She just kept smiling.

"You do." She said, refuting his unspoken denial. "You just had to find another reason to keep breathing."

"I don't. Have one." He told her, swallowing down the lump and croaking out words at last.

"Yes you do. It's the reason you stayed, when you could have left." Fina sighed, enigmatic to his senses.

"What?" Don asked her. No, he _begged her_ for the answer.

Fina just smiled and nestled up in the bed a little tighter. "You should go for a walk, Don. Your body needs a little exercise after the night it had."

"Okay." Don mumbled, and in spite of the aches, moved to sit up on the edge of the bed as Vyse leaned in and kissed Fina again.

"We have some time yet. You should sleep a little more." Vyse told the blue-eyed girl, who hummed appreciatively as he kissed her a third time and lingered before finally standing back up. She sighed and her breathing deepened and slowed, and Vyse turned to Don, holding a hand out to him.

The old sailor took it, grabbed his meager belongings from Ilchymis when the physician retrieved them from a side table, and let Vyse lead him outside of the tent. They both squinted as the first rays of the sun peered through a pink and orange sky.

"Red sky at morn." Don intoned.

"Sailors be warned." Vyse finished the old saying, tucking his hands in the pockets of his coat and sighing.

"Your girl is something special." Don blurted out, and Vyse blinked a couple of times before slipping into a giddy and very gag-worthy smile.

"Yes. She is." Vyse replied.

"Is she really that old doc's niece?" Don asked, the question finally popping up at a convenient time.

"Not in the traditional sense, no. But she claims him as her uncle, and Ilchymis has more sense than to argue with her about it." Vyse chuckled at the implication, and Don found himself thinking that Fina was one of those women that few people dared to argue with, if only to spare themselves her disapproving frown.

"So." Don reached for the sword at his hip, using the weight of the pommel to steady himself. "Noon, then."

Vyse breathed in through his nose, and then back out again. "Noon." He nodded.

"You sure you're ready for this? To try and take on the Armada by yourself?"

"Blue Rogues never back down from a greater danger." Vyse explained, and the weight of the words carried like an often-used mantra. "Besides, I wasn't kidding yesterday. Our ship is the best there is. And after we finish whomping the stuffings out of Gregorio enough to make him back off and leave us be, we're going to make it through the Dark Rift. Our engines are more powerful than you think."

Don breathed into his hands and rubbed them together. "Kid, you're something else. And you're crazy."

"Yeah, I've heard that too." The Blue Rogue chuckled, looking out over the rest of the town, quiet in the early morning hours. "But that doesn't make what we're trying to do any less valid."

"What _are_ you trying to do, anyways?" Don asked him.

"Save the world." The former helmsman did a double take at how earnestly Vyse said that. Vyse didn't crack a grin or laugh after, and Don snorted, which did make Vyse react finally. "I'm being serious."

"That's why I'm laughing." Don gripped his sword all the harder. "Nobody just _says stuff_ like that, kid. Or means it. But you do. And I can't get my head wrapped around it. It's like this rotten world doesn't even _touch_ you."

The boy's smile went brittle at the suggestion, but didn't fade. "Only parts of it are. I'm reserving judgment until I see the rest."

"Who are you?" Don demanded. "Where did you _come from_ to say stuff like that, to believe it?"

"Mid-Ocean." Vyse shrugged. "Ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted to see what was beyond the edge of the world." He held up a hand and looked at it, then closed it into a fist. "I have a chance to make history today. I just have to go through _them_ first." And he probably would, Don finally realized.

This boy _shone_ with his potential, and reflected it in all the people who were around him, who stood by him. Don felt so dim in comparison. Broken.

"The Dark Rift has destroyed everyone who ever tried to get through it." He warned Vyse.

The Blue Rogue huffed. "It hasn't faced me yet."

Vyse would go, and he would try for it, and he didn't care that nobody else had ever made it. He might fail regardless. He _would_ fail, if…

"You need to know something, then." Don found himself saying. "The Dark Rift is a giant vortex. If you can get through one side...if you can get through, you might be able to reach the eye. It's calmer inside. I saw it long enough to know it's there. Look for the pockets, and you might stand a chance."

Vyse looked at him, and there was a look of understanding that passed between them. "Thank you, Don. I'll remember that." Then he was nodding. "All right. I'd better go wake up everyone, and get our crew boarded. We have a ship to make ready for battle stations. Good luck to you."

"Aye." Don whispered, and Vyse started off for the docks. "Hey, Vyse?"

"Yeah?" The Blue Rogue stopped and looked back.

"...Were you serious? About offering the townsfolk a spot on your crew?"

"Yes." Vyse nodded. "I was." Then he waved, and he was gone.

Don stood there for another minute, not sure what to do next. He should have gone for a drink. He always had before. Now, though...that impulse was gone. His body didn't crave it, wasn't screaming for it.

It was screaming for something else, and he wasn't sure what.

* * *

It was mid-morning, and Don had _food_ in his stomach instead of liquor, and his head was clear as a bell. He'd always hated that feeling of clearheadedness that came with sobriety, because there was always too much to think about, to remember, to scream at the skies for.

The crew of the _Delphinus_ was movement and frantic energy in abundance, with last minute supplies being taken aboard, and the Prince of Valua himself standing at the docks with a crew manifest, checking off names as tents and personnel were transferred to their skiffs and flown back to the enormous warship hovering above them.

But there was other activity as well, _unusual_ activity for the former sailors turned abandoned townsfolk, and Don found his feet going to a vast congregation of their very few, who were all clustered around one of the Nasrian merchants from Maramba. Jenkins and Daniels were the ones who were buried in conversation, and the rest looked more like eavesdroppers.

Don sidled in closer, and Daniels sighted him and turned around. "Don."

"Daniels." The former helmsman grunted, staying cool when nobody else seemed to. The merchant was already on edge, and fingering the hilt of a dagger inside his shirt. "What's going on?"

"This flea-bitten excuse for Dhabu dung has a part we need to repair the engine on our last salvageable patrol boat, and he's not cutting the price low enough for us."

Don blinked. "Why do you want to get a patrol boat flying again?"

"Because Captain Vyse said that anyone who wanted to join his crew and go with them was welcome to." Jenkins explained, wearing his old and slightly rusted Valuan armor and running a hand over his shaved scalp. "And maybe the Armada will kick his ass and it'll all be for nothing, but...but if he _wins_ and makes for the Dark Rift, then…" The old sailor who'd gotten narded only the day before bit his lip and shook his head. "Then I want off this rock."

"You're that eager to throw your life away, Jenkins?" Don chuffed.

"It's better than this!" Jenkins roared back at him. "Better than scraping by day after day, waiting to die! And I'm not the only one who feels that way! Fatima wants to leave, and Laurette? This is all that girl's ever known after her parents were killed. There's two kinds of folks left here, Don; the ones young enough to want to try for something better, and the ones old enough to prefer dying yelling at a storm over going out whimpering on this moon-forsaken shore!"

"Your hearts burn bright. And if the rumors that I have heard of Vyse the Daring are true, then it will not be long before the town of Esperanza is abandoned." The merchant said cannily. The Nasrian man smirked a little after. "I must make the best of my trades while I can, you understand. And there is one thing that you desire above all; what you need to repair your last standing ship. Once you have it, and Vyse has defeated the Armada, then you will leave."

"What do you know that we don't?" Don demanded of the salesman. "What have you heard of Vyse?"

"It is said among our people that he tried to warn the Nasultan of Valua's treachery, and that he was dismissed." The merchant explained, turning serious. "It is said that when Admiral Komullah's fleet, scattered and hunted was on the brink of being destroyed, that Vyse and_ that ship there in your harbor_ came screaming out of the sun and broke their pursuers. It is said that he escaped the Grand Fortress _Twice_ in his lifetime, once on a fishing boat converted to hunt arcwhales and the second in that ship there, when he _blew a hole through it."_

Nobody breathed, and the merchant laughed. "He has bested black pirates countless times, defeated bounties and made Discoveries of things in the world that nobody else ever fathomed existed. He flies with the wind at his back, fights and defeats the Valuans, faces off with the titans and mad gods of the Old World, and he never gives up." And then the merchant smirked again. "And now word has it, he has offered all of _you_ a place in his number. What Vyse wants, he takes. He is a Blue Rogue, but he is a pirate, and if he _wants_ you, then he will _have_ you. You all cannot help but be drawn in by his charisma."

The merchant leaned back away smugly, and held up the part they needed. A compressor for the engine. "What is your escape from Esperanza worth to you? Because what you have offered in trade so far is not enough."

They were all _fools_ and Don knew it. They were throwing what little they had, what little hadn't been stripped away for one last wild chance. It was suicide, and yet…

And yet, when Vyse left, if they were not among them, the rest of the town would lose their minds. Don could see the desperation, the hunger, the crawling desire in all their faces.

He was sober enough to see it for what it was, clear-headed enough to feel that pain in their expressions resonate with his own. They were so close. They were _so close_ and but for the want of a single ship part, the stalemate of a slow, decaying demise or an unknowable future lingered.

Don was not the young man he had once been. His heart did not beat with the fires of an explorer, his arms did not have the strength of the unbent mountain that stood against the winds. The last 20 years he had withered and shrunk and pickled in gin and rum and whiskey, and then just as suddenly had that enduring numbness ripped away from him.

He saw it so clearly. He was not the man he once was. He was older, worn, and bitterness and suffering had been his teachers. He had been stripped like Esperanza had been, stripped to its barest essentials. Stripped to his core, Don looked inside his heart and thought again of his friend Robinson, lost to the Dark Rift, dead for decades. He was not a man who let friends and comrades suffer, not when he could do something about it.

The merchant was taken aback when Don slipped his cutlass off of his swordbelt and threw it roughly onto the carpet at the Nasrian's crossed legs. "There." Don growled out. "There is the sword of Ensign Don Juan Artours, an officer of the Valuan Royal Navy as it was before the Empire. When Valua had honor. When we had dreams worth dying for." The merchant reached for it, drew the blade out from the old scabbard, and blinked in surprise at its upkeep.

Even in his lowest moments, Don had never let his cutlass rust away. It sparkled in the amber sunlight, and the gleam in the merchant's eye gave credence to its value.

"Done." The merchant declared, and handed over the compressor to Jenkins. The crowd cheered and took off, eager to continue repairs. The merchant chuckled and stood, then began to tear down his stand. Don followed his feet to the top of the bluff overlooking the docks and stared out at the congregation of Esperanzans, the men and the very few women who lived here. There was life again in this place, and it had bloomed in the wake of Captain Vyse of the Blue Rogues, and if they did not follow him…

Don jumped when a hand fell on his shoulder, and he turned to look to Daniels, who smiled at him through a thin veil of tears. "You gave up your sword?" The old sailor asked him. "But you've held onto it for years. You never thought of trading it away before."

Don looked away, and unconsciously thumbed the compass in his pocket that had been given to him by his father. "I saved it for this." He answered hoarsely, and kept his gaze fixed on the _Delphinus_, looking for a blue coat moving about the crowds as the last of the great warship's transports lifted up away from the docks. "He's going to do it." He declared. "He's going to win this fight."

"How do you know?" Daniels begged, his optimism slightly less full than Don's.

Don Juan Artours, formerly an Ensign and helmsman of the Valuan Royal Navy, breathed in the bitterly cold air of a breeze drifting off the Dark Rift and found reason to smile.

"I am an Esperanzan. Our town is named for _Hope_ and we are the last of it. And that boy down there, that captain...He reminds me of how I once was."

"Is hope enough?" Daniels asked. "We all hoped, and we always failed."

"We were not enough." Don admitted. "But Vyse?" He let the question hang in the air, and Daniels didn't ask again. "Seaman Daniels." He said suddenly, his voice heavy with remembered authority. Daniels snapped to on instinct that hadn't been buried completely. "See to the town. Anything that we absolutely have to take with us, make sure that we have it. We are not coming back here again."

"Yes, _sir!"_ Daniels cheered, and took off running. Don breathed in the cold air again, and felt his lungs fill with pride. He leaned forward, eyes gleaming, and felt his world begin to shift on its axis. The _Delphinus_ stirred to life, and he watched as the four gleaming propellor shafts jutting out behind the great ship started to turn, waking up with a low thrumming growl. Maybe it sensed what was coming. A ship loved by its crew took on a life of its own, after all, or so his father had often remarked when he was a boy.

"Come on, kid." He whispered, and clenched his hand into a fist. "Make me believe."

* * *

**Author's Note:** There are plenty of characters in Skies Of Arcadia, and the game couldn't go into detail with all of them, nor am I interested in the life stories of every one of them either. But there are some among the crew who are important, not because of who they are, but for what they represent and what aspects of the main cast are reflected through them. And Don, the former helmsman, I have always considered important. His life is a warning to Vyse of what he could become if he let the world define him instead of defining himself and letting the world deal with it.

Don is a warning for us as well. We all have our bumps and bruises. Life is rough, and it's rougher on some more than others. The measure of you is not in how little adversity you go through; it is how you respond in the face of it. Vyse only had to remind Don of that, remind everyone in Esperanza what the name of their town meant. What they represent. Don't ever lose hope. Don't ever give up. Blue Rogues never do.


	27. The Thunder Of Guns

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Twenty-Seven: The Thunder of Guns**

_Delphinus, Bridge_

_Esperanza Harbor_

_159 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_1 Hour Until Admiral Gregorio's Noon Deadline_

Their circuitous route across Arcadia had been designed to keep the Armada guessing, as well as to allow Vyse to recruit the necessary crewmembers that they needed. Enrique and Vyse had been hopeful that it would give them an edge.

The prince-in-exile stood at the massive reinforced windows at the front of the bridge and looked out over the five warships and the flagship of the 2nd Fleet, commanded by Admiral Gregorio. They had been woefully optimistic. It had to have been Belleza's spy network. That woman found out everything important, in time. Long before he had met Miss Aika and Miss Fina, Belleza (and his mother, to a lesser degree) had taught him to never underestimate a woman. They could be just as dangerous as men. Moreso, really. In the absence of direct force and strength, they employed other means. Aika's dexterity and burning fire, Fina's cool and demure presence that hid the sometimes terrifying powers underneath. And in Belleza's case, you never saw the knife coming. You only felt it when she was ripping it out of your back.

Somehow, Belleza had figured out where they were going. It might not have been direct information. If she only followed the wake of their travels, if Ramirez, who was a _Silvite_ just as Fina was had provided the same information about the lands beyond the Dark Rift, she might have just pieced together their route.

Or perhaps he was just paranoid and the Armada had scattered in all directions to search for them, and somehow Gregorio's fleet had just gotten lucky enough to stumble across them. It didn't matter now.

"He kept his word." Vyse said as he walked up behind and joined Enrique at the window. "Gregorio didn't attack."

Enrique smiled and nodded slowly. "Uncle Gregorio is the most honorable man in the Armada. He always keeps his promises."

Vyse folded his arms, considering the view outside. "You know we're going to have to fight our way through that blockade."

"Yes."

"You know that we're going to have to fight him."

"Yes, Vyse. That's rather hard to ignore." Enrique muttered. "He has his orders as well. To take me back...or to stop us, at all costs."

"Tell me about him. His tactics."

"Gregorio is a defensive tactician. The Grand Fortress was his masterstroke; an impenetrable wall that could house the navy and make repairs on the ships. The cannon wall side of the base was added after my mother declared herself Empress." Enrique looked at the ships lingering in blockade around the rusted city. "He, and his fleet, will fight conservatively and look for an opening. They are the only ships in the Armada who rely on ramming tactics, and his ships have a more rigid structural framework to account for it."

"So. They'll take more punishment, but they move slower?"

"They _should,_ but it is also likely that they have been retrofitted." Enrique cautioned him. "They know how dangerous this ship is. It's entirely possible De Loco felt the need to enhance their ships some."

Vyse stared out at the blockade again. "Not by much. For all that they've been modified, nothing in how they flew in yesterday gave a hint to any secret abilities. Of course, they could be hiding their real potential. They built this ship; we've made a few changes and alterations here and there, but the _Delphinus_ is still Valuan. The one thing we have going for us that they don't is the Moonstone Cannon. And I think they're expecting it."

"Then we don't use it." Enrique blurted out. "No. We _can't_ use it. Not because they know it's coming, no. Because it's them."

Vyse blinked and looked back at him. "Say that again?" He puzzled slowly. "You're telling me we can't use our ace in the hole because of what now?"

Enrique had a dozen different things he _could _say and none of them fit precisely. But he knew that this was important. The Moonstone Cannon was a powerful weapon; terrible, the power of the Old World as Fina told it. There were times that they had to use it. But here…

Against his _uncle…_

"We will make a statement here." Enrique finally said, dragging the words up, hoping they were the right ones. "And depending on how we fight, the _methods_ we use to fight, that message will change. Gregorio is an admiral, a member of the Admiralty, but he is _not_ Galcian's man. He is not my mother's cudgel, or her brute. He has always refused postings abroad, where orders and situations might require morally unethical decisions and acts." He found his message, and picked up in his intensity. "Gregorio has always, first and foremost, been a _defender_ in the navy, and then the Armada. If we fight him like we would fight Galcian or that Valuan task force that promised no quarter, then we are making a statement about ourselves. About the Blue Rogues."

Vyse blinked rapidly, and Enrique exhaled, relieved that that particular barb had sunk in.

"What's your suggestion?" Vyse asked, calm and open. He was listening, and behind those innocuous words was a question Enrique heard clearly. _How are we going to fight him?_

If anyone could predict Gregorio's actions, come close to reading his mind, it was Enrique.

"We offer quarter. We fly the flags demanding their surrender, with the colors arranged to also include the caveat that they can retreat at any time." Enrique nodded to himself. "Our objective here is not the total annihilation of the 2nd Fleet; it is to pass them, and to reach the Dark Rift. We fight them, but in a way that makes a statement." Enrique narrowed his eyes. "Blue Rogues _fight_ monsters. We don't become them. So when we take them on, we leave the Moonstone Cannon offline. We use our standard cannons and our torpedoes and our spell-ammunition. We fight them with the tools that we _both_ have at our disposal. And we defeat him on their terms, giving him the chance to fall back with a bloodied nose, but still alive." Enrique finally looked away. "I honestly have no idea what Gregorio thinks about my presence among you. It's entirely possible he's convinced himself that you somehow kidnapped and _brainwashed_ me into joining your crew. Certainly, that is the opinion my mother clings to."

"So if we fight him while holding one arm behind our back, going for minimum damage, we're not just making a statement about the Blue Rogues. We're also making a statement about _you_ being with us." Vyse summarized. He didn't seem entirely convinced.

Enrique chuckled. "What's that part of the Code, Vyse? Blue Rogues never back down from a greater danger?"

Vyse flinched, then grimaced. He ended by laughing and running a hand through his hair. "Moons, you really _are_ one of us now." The man who was more than 5 years his younger said. "Fine. Fine, we'll fight it your way."

"Will you wear that hat you picked up back in Maramba?" Enrique asked him, looking back to the tricornered black hat with blue and red ribbons sewn about its edges. "I believe Miss Fina said it carried great spiritual power in it. You may as well call on every advantage you can get."

"Aside from our main cannon." Vyse snuffed. "I may end up taking Kalifa's advice after all."

"Kalifa? The fortuneteller?" Enrique jolted a little. "You asked her about our mission?"

"I asked her about the Dark Rift." Vyse muttered. "To humor her. She didn't say anything about Admira…" The Blue Rogue stopped talking suddenly, and his eyes took on a distant expression.

"Vyse?"

"Unbelievable." Vyse finally groaned. "No, it's impossible, she couldn't have known."

"Vyse." Enrique said sternly. "What. Did she tell you?"

"She told me that a _Fortress_ would guard the way. That if I faced it head-on, it would..._break the spine._ And then she said I needed to learn to dance in the wind."

Enrique felt a little faint. "You're making that up."

"I wish I was. I don't like putting stock into hokey things like moon phase fortunes or predictions. But...what do you suppose would happen if one of those ships in the blockade managed to ram us successfully?"

"It would fracture us down to the keel."

"The _spine_ of the ship." Vyse pointed out, and Enrique felt the urge to sit down.

"Then we had better learn to dance in the wind." Enrique replied anxiously. "Or fly fast enough that they never get the chance."

Vyse held out his arm and clenched his hand into a fist. A nimbus of blue light glowed around it.

"You know blue magic?" Enrique uttered incredulously.

"Captain Drachma did. Had a blue moonstone he gave us to learn to focus with." Vyse smirked. "I know the Quika spell. So do Aika and Fina. Even now, that old man's looking out for us."

* * *

_5 Minutes Before the Noon Deadline_

The Moonstone Cannon's reservoir, as Aika had once explained in some blab of technical jargon long days ago during the Southern Ocean crossing that Enrique had mostly put out of his mind, didn't just have a link between the bridge's charging ports and the capacitors belowdecks. In truth, there were also connections from the main cannon's reservoir to the moonstone reactors, along the inner walls to the hull plating, and even to the four gravity-mounted turrets just past the foredeck. They hadn't been tested, _yet,_ but the idea was one that Fina immediately understood and gave voice to.

The _Delphinus_ was a ship of high grade Valuan steel and armor, one that encompassed the pinnacle of modern shipbuilding techniques. And to that, De Loco had added not only the menacing cannon which was the reason for the ship's massive length, but a strange blending of moon-based magic, spiritual power, and engineering.

"Magitech." Enrique repeated the word, snorting at how _strange_ it sounded. That a ship could be augmented by the bolstering power and lethality of the red moon's enhancement spells, that a skilled mage could actually increase the durability of the ship's very armor. Magical cannonballs and cannon shells had been in use for decades; curious things that could be charged with a spell to detonate with the effect on a hit.

To find out that they could do more, and that to Fina, such a miracle was _standard technology._

Moons, he was living through strange times.

"All stations, report." Vyse was seated at the captain's chair, and as promised, he was finally wearing the black tricornered hat which had been given to him in Maramba by a young carpetmaker who claimed lineage from a long line of air pirates.

"Helm, ready." Laurence declared, hands on the spokes of the telemotor and something fierce burning in his voice. For all that he was cool under pressure and claimed to only care about the job, the man was looking forward to this.

_"Weapons, ready!"_ Khazim's bellow blasted out over the intercom. _"All cannons and torpedo tubes are loaded, captain! Say the word and we will __**smash**__ this blockade!"_

_"Moonstone reactors and turbines are at the ready, and we greased up the shafts just last night. We're all set down here in engineering, captain."_ Came the voice of Hans, young and cheerful and sun-blindingly optimistic. _"And Miss Aika, of course."_ He added, earning a throaty chuckle from the red-haired Chief Engineer of the _Delphinus_ who stood next to a console that gave her the technical readings for outside atmospheric conditions and the reactor status.

_"Lookout is ready, Ixa'taka's friends of the Blue!" _The excitable and forever perky voice of Tikatika on the high tower that jutted up from the citadel cut in next. _"As ordered, Captain Vyse, we are flying the signal flags that Prince Enrique advised. They should be visible to the blockade now, even to their unskilled eyes."_

"We can't all have the eyesight of a hawk, Tikatika." Vyse chuckled in reply. "You know how to send direct messages down to Khazim at fire control, right?"

_"Yes, captain. It will be done. No great steel arrow will go off-target while the mighty hunter Tikatika guides them!"_

"Damn right." Marco uttered softly. Of everyone on the bridge, the young Valuan boy was one that Enrique always felt a blossoming warmth and care for. Marco was Valuan, and he was Enrique's responsibility to protect, Blue Rogue or no. The boy idolized Vyse, and was even warming up to him as well.

"Marco." Enrique said softly. "Are you ready for this? It will not be like the attack on that task force we found hunting the Nasrian fleet in the frontier. This is _war._ You know what you need to do?"

"Me, and Pinta, and Pow are the runners." Marco nodded quickly, wiping his nose on his sleeve right after. "If a fire starts up, we put it out with fire extinguishers. If we get hit and you need someone to figure out how bad we got smashed up, we go and look for it." He was trying to sound brave, but he trembled a little nonetheless. Enrique reached a hand out and set it on the boy's shoulder.

"You can do this, Marco." He told the young boy, who looked up at him with hope and wonder. "You're not alone."

Marco's smile was slow, and fragile, and all the more precious for it. "Yeah. Okay." He nodded once. Of course, other stations were finishing up their reports while Enrique was giving Marco his pep talk, and when Fina heard the last report, she turned expectantly to Enrique. Enrique smiled sheepishly and went back to his station by the navigation table, then gave her a nod. "Navigation stands ready."

"All stations ready, captain." Fina said, bowing her head slightly at Vyse before stepping up to stand beside his chair. "And that hat does look good on you." She remarked, pulling it down slightly on one side and giggling at the face he made as he adjusted it back.

"Mm. Doesn't it just?" Aika leered at him from her own post, and Enrique blushed, reminded anew of the bonds between Vyse, Aika and Fina, and how he was probably seducing the both of them like a true blackguard.

Vyse just sighed and pointed forward. "Laurence, take us in. Fina, Aika, take turns manning the charging capacitors. We're not using the Moonstone Cannon, but I want to keep this ship reinforced and running hot."

"We could do it together, it helps to reduce the strain." Aika suggested, and Fina smiled and brushed some of her hair out of her face as she looked away.

"Aye. Let me know if you need me or Enrique to chip in as well." Vyse said, bringing the discussion to a close. The two women moved to the charging ports, set their outer hands down on the pedestals, and clasped their other hands together, forming a circuit.

Aika's aura flared up, burning a brilliant red, and it flowed between them, enveloping Fina. The Silvite inhaled sharply, her eyes flaring silver.

**"The power to defend."** Fina intoned, and the ship shivered. Enrique tore his eyes away from the pair and looked out over the ship, and though it was hard to tell in the hazy orange daylight, he could have sworn that the whole exterior of the ship began to shimmer as well.

The prince in exile shivered and moved to take Aika's station at the engine readout console.

_"The first of the Blockade ships are turning to meet us. Bearing, 020, elevation 150, range 4,000!" _Tikatika's sharp voice cut in over the intercom.

"Launch torpedoes and engage!" Vyse shouted, and the forward hatches along the bow flipped up, dislodging their torpedoes in bursts of smoke and fire. The warshots rocketed up and away, arcing towards the closing ship. Puffs of smoke from the two smaller-barreled rotating turrets of the warship came as its answer.

"All hands, this is the captain." Vyse declared, using the intercom squawk set up from his chair. "We have engaged."

* * *

The first ship in the blockade opened up with every gun on board, but Laurence had the _Delphinus_ dialed in. The first warshots the frigate fired at them went wide with deft maneuvering; the six torpedoes that they had fired off to meet the Valuan ship were dead on, and the sonar guidance did the rest, with each pillar of steel and explosives burying into the hull before detonating along the port side, the superstructure, and even one shot that nailed their propellors dead on, sheering one entire shaft clean off. The ship kept turning away and rotated its guns _away_ from the _Delphinus_ and quickly raised a flag of surrender; they sailed past the smoking and badly damaged ship and kept going.

The next to approach them were a trio of ships, which signaled that they were taking no more chances.

"Well. It seems they aren't willing to surrender." Vyse said, earning a nervous laugh from everyone on the bridge. He smirked at their response, then let the grin drop away as he fixed his hat. "Suggestions, Enrique?"

The phrasing was simple, the tone innocent, but the way his eyes fixed on Enrique, that of a captain _demanding_ answers from a subordinate made it very clear to Enrique what he was really asking.

He was looking to Enrique for information on Valuan attack patterns, the key to whatever strategy they were employing.

"Sir." Enrique said, and looked through the forward windows with scrutinizing eyes. Two to either side. One going high, but between them. A trap favored by the captains who trained under Gregorio. To turn away would expose them to the full force of the enemy's cannonfire and risk being rammed. To try and fly above them would have the lead ships using flak shells to horn them in while the ship at the top of the stacked pyramid would close in for an assured ramming. To dive under would get them clear of the direct line of fire, but deprive the _Delphinus_ of turning its own more impressive armament on them. And their torpedoes hadn't been reloaded yet, as they'd launched off all six in an alpha strike to clear the first ship and make a statement.

"Can't go under it, can't go over it, can't go around it." Enrique said aloud, looking away from the ships and back to Vyse. "Have to go _through_ it."

"Ach." Vyse grimaced and tried to smile after. "Well. We are Blue Rogues, are we not Enrique?"

"Yes, captain." Enrique huffed, smiling in spite of himself. "We never do anything the easy way."

"Days like this, it certainly seems like it."

"You know that's not actually in the Code, right Enrique?" Aika called out. "We're going to take a hell of a pounding here."

Vyse jumped out of the captain's chair. "Enrique. Take control of the bridge."

"What?" Enrique blinked. "Vyse, what are…"

Vyse ignored him, walking past the prince and joining Aika and Fina next to the moonstone reservoir feeder ports. He slipped behind them, brought up both hands, and stroked his fingers from their shoulders down to their joined hands. Then he took them, and slipped between them, and squeezed until their fingers meshed together with his.

The red light from Aika suddenly bled brighter, gaining additional color, three layers in all; Red on the surface, silver beneath it, and at the center of the aura they shared, indomitable Blue Rogues navy blue.

_"We are Blue Rogues, and the pirates of old defend our cause."_ Vyse said, like a spell, and the ship shimmered with bright blue light around the hull, enveloping the red glimmers with something stronger.

"Orders, sir?!" Laurence shouted, and Enrique came back to himself. Of course.

Vyse had left him in command so he could focus on doing...whatever it was he was doing with Aika and Fina. Enrique shook off his shock and went up to the captain's chair, easing into it.

"They want to box us in, and there's no clean exit. So take us in, Mr. Laurence. Full speed." He ordered. He reached to the intercom next to the captain's seat and accessed the line for fire control. "Khazim. Turn all guns hard to port and fire when we're in point blank range. I want us to disable one warship completely on the first pass!"

_"As you command, exiled prince!"_ Khazim bellowed in reply.

The _Delphinus_ flew on, barreling towards the pincer and the expected trap. The three Valuan ships kept their spacing, and started to fire on them. Unable to veer away, the shots impacted against the ship's armor and the blazing aura around it. Most of the rounds exploded on the surface, unable to penetrate through. One must have gotten through, however; the ship shuddered, and there was the sound of shearing metal. Enrique swore. "Marco!"

"I'm on it!" The young boy shouted, and took off like a shot to meet up with Pinta and Pow and find the damage.

_"Guns still operational. Torpedo tubes 1, 2, and 3 are loaded, 4 through 6 still loading!"_

They slipped into the noose, Laurence threading the eye of the needle.

_"Entering point blank range!"_ Khazim shouted.

"Fire when ready!" Enrique called back, and all eight barrels of the _Delphinus_ went off almost at the same time. Empowered by the magic flowing through the ship and through its ammunition, the shells tore into the ship like razors and exploded in hellfire, peeling back entire decks' worth of armor. What was left of the ship started to drop like a stone, a burning wreck bound for the abyss.

Enrique put the doomed ship and its dead and dying crew out of his mind, even though it pained him. They had flown all the right signal flags for them to know they could simply retreat. But they had their orders.

Enrique had his. And right now…

His eyes fixed on the two remaining ships in the attack, the one on the right trying to turn its guns to fire at them as they screamed by and the one above keeping them from gaining altitude.

The ship _right_ above them, with its keel plating, thinner than the rest of the hull, exposed.

"Fire torpedoes!" Enrique shouted. "Straight up!"

_"What? Sir, we-"_

"DO IT NOW!" Enrique thundered. The hatches for tubes 1, 2, and 3 snapped open half a second later, and discharged their ammunition. They didn't have very far to travel, and there was very little to stop them from burrowing in, even without them achieving terminal velocity.

The resulting explosions rained ship debris down on the _Delphinus_ before Laurence could get them clear of it and dive hard. When they came about, they saw that the second ship's belly was gutted wide open, and that it was drifting towards the continental shelf and losing altitude. The first ship was already dropping beneath the clouds, and the third was flying straight for Esperanza and hoisting a surrender flag.

Vyse gasped for air and let go of Aika and Fina's hands, stumbling back away from the charging pedestals. He shook his head and looked out the window. "Two ships out of three in one pass. And the third's running for it." He exhaled and tightened his hat over his skull. "That's some damn decent shooting, Enrique. Well done."

Enrique nodded weakly and stood back up again. "Captain, are you retaking command?" He asked. Vyse must have felt the pleading in his voice, because the Blue Rogue nodded and walked towards him.

"Out of my chair, Enrique. You are relieved. Back to your station."

"Yes, sir." Enrique pulled his beret off and wiped at his brow as he moved on shaky legs back to his post at the navigation table.

"Aika, Fina, how are you two holding up?" Vyse asked.

"Getting tired, but we're running enough into the reservoir to maintain the augments for another five minutes." Aika answered wearily. "We'll stop after that."

_"Bridge, this is the lookout's nest." _Tikatika cut in over the ship's intercom. _"I'm getting an unusual flag signal from the flagship. It is approaching on its own; the last blockade frigate is turning away and flying the flag for surrender."_

"Enrique. Binoculars." Vyse said, already turning to walk back towards the front of the bridge and the windows with a hand on his telescopic goggle lens. Enrique grabbed the binoculars by his station and followed him to the windows, and the two looked out.

It took him a moment to dial in his binoculars and focus them correctly, but the blurriness disappeared and he could finally see the signal flags being flown by the _Auriga._

Enrique sucked in a sharp breath. "He's calling us out." He said faintly. "Admiral Gregorio is signaling for a ship to ship duel. The _Auriga_ against the _Delphinus."_

"The man's got an iron stomach." Vyse remarked.

"His nickname is _Ironwall_ for a reason." Enrique reminded his friend and captain. "He will not back down quickly, but him calling for a duel...he wishes to preserve the other ships in his fleet from further damage."

"He puts his men's safety ahead of his own." Vyse went back across the bridge and sat down in his chair. "Laurence, turn us into a slow arc around him. Enrique, how do we answer him without changing our signal flags?"

"Fire a single shot straight ahead. Aimed at nothing." Enrique replied. Vyse gave the command to Khazim quietly, and a cannon lobbed the shell ahead, spiraling into the empty skies and falling away.

An answering report came back from the _Auriga_ which also began to circle around, opposite of the _Delphinus's_ track_._

Enrique swallowed. "He acknowledges our agreement to the duel. We now have one minute before we will turn into each other and open fire."

"Right." Vyse breathed in and out. "Aika? Fina? I'm sorry, but I need you to hold on and keep charging the ship's armor up. I'll make it up to you, I promise, but we need it."

Neither woman slumped at the weight of the task set in front of them. They merely nodded, breathed in deeply, and held the other's hands all the tighter.

"Okay." Vyse tapped his shipwide squawk. "All hands. We've beaten back the blockade, but Admiral Gregorio's called for a ship to ship duel before we can call this nonsense over and done with. Keep doing your jobs, keep this ship flying. Marco, if you're listening, give me a damage report when you get the chance." He let go of the button and eased back, resting his hands on the armrests. "So. Us versus the man who basically raised you." Vyse remarked.

Enrique's hands tightened. "Yes."

"You going to be all right?" Vyse asked him gently.

Enrique kept his eyes on the _Auriga,_ not daring to look back at Vyse. He didn't think he would be able to manage it and keep his face from breaking.

"I will have to be."

* * *

Fighting against most Valuan ships and ship captains was, as Vyse had put it once, _like getting into a boxing match._ That was not the comparison that Enrique would give to the kind of airship combat they found themselves in now against Gregorio. It wasn't even like a fencing match.

This was more like a game of _Shyamat,_ a Nasrian board game of intense strategy that focused on capturing an opposing player's king and sparing your own. Gregorio on board the _Auriga_ didn't so much attack them as he hedged them in, staying far enough away to evade the more serious shots fired at him. Even the torpedo shots Tikatika guided in couldn't do more than strike glancing blows; Gregorio anticipated every shot.

The fight was going on into its 14th minute and the fatigue from the strain of endless combat was definitely taking its toll on everyone on the bridge; Enrique didn't want to think about how everyone belowdecks was managing. Marco had reported in ten minutes ago; they'd taken a warshot amidships that had penetrated the armor, but it hadn't hit anything critical after exploding. A storeroom of linens and clothes had gone up in smoke before he and the rest of the fire crew had put it out, but aside from needing to patch up the hole and wash laundry more often, they'd been lucky.

By far, Aika and Fina looked the most ragged. So many people saw magic, which was fueled by a person's innate spiritual power, as a miracle with no downside. Enrique knew from experience the folly of that. Concentrated warcasting could leave a spellmage as exhausted as someone who ran lunaleagues or sparred for an hour. Perhaps more. And they weren't just casting magic normally; they had been feeding the ship and keeping the magical augments up and powered from the start of the fight.

"We can't keep doing this." Vyse said aloud, his eyes dancing between the distant _Auriga_ and Aika and Fina, who stayed linked side by side with their hands clasped, struggling to stay standing. "He's wearing us down."

"It is Gregorio's favored tactic." Enrique confirmed sourly. "He stays close, circling his opponent and wearing them down, biding his time until they make a fatal mistake. Once they are exposed, that is when he closes in for the kill. An indomitable defense, a spiked shield that hides a spear that only lashes out when you cannot avoid it."

"You know a way through that defense, Enrique?"

"No." The prince shook his head. "So far as I know, nobody ever managed to get the better of Gregorio in a defensive fight like this."

Vyse drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair, thinking hard for a moment. Enrique watched his eyes furrow beneath his hat, and then suddenly, some wild thought occurred to the Blue Rogue. Vyse rocked forward and _leapt_ from his seat, a manic grin growing on his face.

"That's because everybody else tried to fight Gregorio on _his_ terms." Vyse explained. "That's the mistake. He likes to turtle up? We're going to make him come out of his shell by doing what nobody else ever did; faking him out."

"Whatever your plan is, captain, we had better do it fast." Laurence grunted behind the wheel.

"Noted, helmsman." Vyse paced around the bridge like a chained huskra, thinking loudly enough that Enrique could see the gears turning in his mind. "Okay. Gregorio moves when his opponent overextends themselves. So here's what we're going to do." He moved over next to Laurence and toggled the speaking tubes' intercom. "Bridge to engineering."

_"Engineering, captain." _Lapen's voice responded, a little harried, but still intact.

"How are the engines holding up?"

_"Running warm, but holding up just fine."_

"Good. Do you have anything down there that could put out a lot of smoke? We're about to try something crazy to end this fight, and I need the good admiral to think that we've pushed the engines to their limits."

_"Huh…"_ Lapen seemed puzzled by the idea, but intrigued. It ended up being Hans, heard in the background, who came up with the solution. _"Lapen, what if we-" _and then it was indistinguishable technical gibberish for a while until Hans' voice picked up in volume again, _"-Just like dad used to do?"_

"You two have an idea?"

_"Centime special."_ Lapen smirked. _"I take it you'll want to disable one of the turbine shafts the same time we start funneling smoke out of our ass, right? Make it look like it's been banjaxed?"_

"It would help."

_"Give us a few minutes to get things set up down here, and we'll tell you when we're ready. If you can spare Aika, another set of hands would be great."_

Enrique watched Vyse look back over his shoulder to the two women he trusted above anyone else, nodding once. "I'll see what I can do." He told Lapen, and killed the squawk. "Keep her steady for now, Laurence. No sudden moves just yet, just keep us circling." The helmsman settled for nodding in reply, too focused on keeping the _Delphinus_ moving and staying in its evasive pattern. The _Auriga_ was denying them a chance to land their shots; it wouldn't do to let Gregorio get an easy hit on them.

Getting Aika and Fina to detach from the reservoir feeder lines took a fair amount of coaxing, and when they did finally let go and stopped feeding their magic into it, Vyse had to catch them both as their exhaustion finally caught up with them. Watching Vyse cradle them both, keeping them braced and on their feet until they came back around and uttering soft words of encouragement and praise to the both of them tweaked at Enrique's mind; He cared for the both of them, that much was clear. Enrique could see no falsehood or deception in the worry Vyse had for them, and how it was equal. That he could call Aika his female companion and then _cheat_ on her with Fina…

But then Aika was revived enough to make her way down to the engine room, and Fina accepted Vyse's offer of resting in the captain's chair to settle herself while he finished making preparations for the ultimate bluff. And Enrique had other things to occupy his time aside from worrying about how the most honorable air pirate he knew was also a philanderer.

Their crew could work miracles, and everyone somehow found the strength for what would hopefully be the last push. Enrique fell in step beside Vyse, slipping into the role of a first officer without any difficulties whatsoever, and more surprisingly, not a single voice of protest. Vyse spoke as the captain, and with Aika belowdecks and Fina resting in what seemed deep meditation, he and the rest of the crew on the bridge looked to Enrique as the next in the chain of command. Even Domingo, who'd slipped into his former position at navigation as it became clear he had other more pressing duties.

Enrique listened in on the intercom by the captain's chair as Vyse conferred with Laurence at the helm one last time. He nodded and leaned up. "Captain. All stations report ready. Aika says engineering is ready for the deception."

"Okay." Vyse turned back around. "Let's get going then." He started towards the charging pillars, and Fina stirred back to alertness, sluggishly trying to stand back up again. Enrique found himself pushing her back down.

"No, Miss Fina. You're exhausted, you can't!"

"Who else will?" Fina asked him in return, tired but still possessed of fire. "Someone needs to keep powering the spells protecting this ship, empowering its weapons. And someone will need to cast Quika to help us get clear of Gregorio when he tries to ram us, and…"

"I'll do it, Fina." Vyse cut her off gently, and Enrique turned to find Vyse had moved from the feeder ports to kneel in front of Fina and the captain's chair. His hand came up to rest on her knee. "You've done enough, you and Aika both. I can cast Quika as well, I'm not nearly as exhausted as you are."

"You can't manage both alone." Fina argued, and her hand came down to rest on top of his. "I have to help you."

"I will not have you _passing out on me_ again from doing too much." Vyse bit the words out angrily. "Please, Fina, don't…"

"If Aika was here, she would tell you the same thing." Fina interrupted him. She quirked her mouth up into a smile. "She'd yell at you more, though."

Vyse huffed and bowed his head. "She would." He admitted.

Enrique blinked, and had a very strange moment where he almost slipped out of his body and really _listened_ to what was being said. The concern and the care from captain to crewmember. The loyalty of a woman to a man, and how Fina used Aika as a lever to get Vyse to stop.

Did Fina _know_ about Aika and Vyse? Had he misread the dynamic? Aika being so unconcerned about Fina doing the captain's laundry...Could it be possible that Vyse and Fina were just very good friends, and not illicit lovers? And if he was wrong, then he was ashamed. Ashamed for thinking so little of Vyse, for doubting him.

"Miss Fina." Enrique said quickly. "Please, rest. I will help the captain."

Vyse and Fina both looked at him in pleased surprise. "Yeah?" Vyse said in relief. "That would help."

"Enrique, it...linking your spiritual forces together, making a circuit with the ship is very _precise."_ Fina warned him. "For it to work, for you to not clash against one another, there must be trust, _absolute trust_ between the casters. Aika and Vyse and I have that trust, to slip against one another's power, to let our thoughts and our feelings touch one another."

Enrique went still at the assertion, wondering. Did he have that with Vyse? After all his doubts, did he have that trust in his captain? Did Vyse trust him?

Vyse clasped a hand on his shoulder, and Enrique looked at him. The Blue Rogue was smiling. "You have my trust, Enrique." Vyse said. "Don't ever doubt that. I am with you today, and I am with you tomorrow."

Enrique's heart swelled, and he nodded back. "I am a Blue Rogue, sworn to the Code. My strength is yours."

The two men went to the charging station and set a palm on each of the lines, then clasped their free hands together in military fashion, palm to forearm. Then Vyse called on his power, and Enrique gasped to feel it flowing over him, _through_ him. He added his own, a swirl of electric yellow blazing as streaks through that indomitable blue aura.

And he could feel all of it then; all of the pride Vyse felt in his crew, the pride in their ship, the unbreakable faith in the rightness of their mission and their cause. There wasn't a shred of doubt in the younger man; nervousness, but no doubt in Vyse's mind at all that they would succeed and triumph in this. And there was love.

There was so much love in Vyse's heart that it took Enrique's breath away, even as glimpses of Aika's grinning face and the sounds of Fina's laughter and the feel of her warm hugs and Enrique's own prideful declaration of honor and nobility and the _wrongness_ of Valua's empire passed by him.

He opened one eye and looked out through the windows and down the line of the ship, seeing the shimmers of the protective spells around the _Delphinus_ gleaming brighter than ever.

Everyone knew their roles, enough that Vyse only had to whisper out an order to start, and then reminders. Engineering was the first to act; at the command given, the leftmost shaft slowed and then came to a halt as the steam feeding its reciprocating engine was shunted off, and then the false smoke created by inventive workmanship was unleashed and sent pouring out of the stern to make it look as though they had lost an engine and the engine room was on fire. Laurence adjusted the speed on the EOT to compensate, drifting them from flank speed to half power, and sure enough, the _Auriga_ began to move, cutting a tighter corner on them and picking up speed as it built up for the ramming attack that they had been expecting.

"Not yet." Vyse murmured, when Laurence fidgeted in place. Enrique blinked and opened both eyes, almost losing his concentration. Vyse hadn't _looked_ at the helm and yet he'd still somehow known that Laurence was getting nervous. "Hold, Laurence. Hold."

_"Captain, should I…"_

"Hold your fire, Khazim." Enrique called out, loudly enough for the gunnery officer to hear him even at a distance from the intercom's squawk. "Don't fire yet."

The waiting was...excruciating. There was no better word for it. Every instinct Enrique had, that Vyse certainly had, was yelling to pick up speed, to re-engage the engines to full power, to flee and get out of the way of that heavily armored and spiked prow that had been _made_ for gutting ships in twain.

And yet Vyse still called for Laurence to _hold_ and Enrique kept talking down Khazim and his eager trigger finger. Until Vyse's eyes flared open, and the brown irises were drowned out in a riot of blue light that _flooded_ his aura and slipped away into the machinery.

_"NOW!"_ Vyse bellowed, and engineering and the helm and fire control moved as one.

Fully committed, the _Auriga_ charged at full flank speed, sacrificing maneuverability for outright power.

The _Delphinus_ spun its four impeller shafts up to maximum speed, and unseen by everyone, the steam engines were _flooded_ with the power of Vyse's spell of quickening, increasing the flow and the revolutions far beyond normal military power. Shunted into overdrive, the enormous battleship _heaved_ forward and leapt up into the air, with the _Auriga_ passing underneath it. Unable to slow down. Unable to stop. Unable to change course.

Then the _Delphinus_'s four turrets and eight gunbarrels spun around as the ship turned around and slipped in behind the _Auriga_ and fired, and four of the six torpedo tubes launched their projectiles. The _Auriga_ was raked by cannonfire and speared by three direct hits from the burrowing torpedoes, all before it could so much as start to turn back.

When the _Auriga_ stopped reeling from the hits taken, the _Delphinus_ had taken up position directly behind it, in perfect firing position for the Moonstone Cannon, even though the bay door remained closed and the barrel lay inert. Everyone waited then, waited to see what Gregorio would do at the clear and direct warning. To fight on was certain death; he had been outmatched and outwitted.

_"Lookout to bridge! The Valuan flagship is raising a signal flag of surrender! We've won! We've won!"_ Tikatika's eager and ecstatic voice exclaimed.

Enrique let go of the moonstone reservoir's feeder port and immediately felt lightheaded.

"Easy, easy. I've got you." Vyse muttered, bracing him up by his shoulders. "It's over."

"We did it." Enrique laughed once. "We actually won."

"Did you doubt that we would?" Vyse asked, when Enrique got his feet back under him and took a few steps away. The prince-in-exile turned and looked back to his captain and friend, seeing how Vyse was just as tired, but grinning with pride.

As the ship roared with cheers and roars of triumph, Enrique felt the answer before he ever spoke the words.

"Not for a second."

* * *

_Offshore from Esperanza_

_159 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Mid-Afternoon_

With the fight ended and Admiral Gregorio's flag of surrender still flying under the promise of his good conduct, the _Delphinus_ had pulled up alongside the _Auriga_ for the delivery of terms. In a different time and under different circumstances, Gregorio would have surrendered his sword, and Vyse would have given it back to him. It meant the same thing as that simple act of pulling up alongside a ship where their cannons could decimate each other at point blank range, and trusting that neither would do so.

Along the rail of the _Delphinus_ foredeck, Vyse and Enrique stood by Aika and Fina. Along the _Auriga's_ railing, Admiral Gregorio was joined by his vice captain, and nobody else. With the ships in hover and their engines quiet, there was nothing but the gentle moan of the winds blowing off of the Dark Rift and from the World's End sky rift to mask the silence as the two parties stared at each other. There had been an initial exchange of pleasantries, but that had been followed by a long silence. Vyse seemed content to let Enrique do the talking, the women followed their captain's lead, and Gregorio just…

The old admiral Enrique loved and admired like family looked back at him with sorrowful eyes and a bitter smile. Enrique couldn't find the words. Gregorio somehow did.

"I always thought that if we were in a battle together, it would be on the same side." The Admiral said to him. "But that was a battle well-fought. Captain Vyse, you are a very capable and dangerous opponent."

"Thank you." Vyse said. "But I deferred to Enrique's expertise at the start of our engagement. He anticipated your fleet's opening maneuvers and found the solution. I merely found a way around your strategy in our final duel."

"Giving away all my best tricks, were you?" Gregorio raised an eyebrow and stared at Enrique, and the prince-in-exile fought down the urge to look away in shame. He would not be ashamed of this. He would not let Gregorio make him feel _guilty_ for taking this path.

"Trying to rule the world with an iron fist will be Valua's downfall." Enrique answered back, keeping his face calm in spite of the fatigue of battle and the wrenching in his stomach. "This world is not Valua's to rule. It belongs to the people."

Gregorio's features smoothed out. "So...this is your solution, then?"

"You told me Valua is not what it once was." Enrique answered his honorary uncle sorrowfully. "I tried to change it from the inside, uncle. I could not. Galcian is a...a _madman_ and my mother is too bitter and too swept up in the poisonous dream of a worldwide empire. This is the only way forward. For our people, for my father's legacy, and for my own honor. I was _not_ brainwashed, uncle. I have traveled Mid-Ocean, and seen the devastation at Nasrad. The callous disregard for honorable surrender displayed by the task force in the frontier lands. I have looked on Ixa'taka and seen an entire _generation_ decimated and enslaved to feed a bottomless war machine, and even seen the desolation of Valua's hinterlands. By the _Moons,_ uncle, we have even poisoned our own lands and darkened our own skies!" Enrique slammed his fist onto the railing. "How can I look on all of that, all that destruction and desolation, and _not_ try something, try _anything_ to change it? How can I stand by and let Galcian hunt down the Moon Crystals and ruin the rest of the world like we've ruined our own country?"

Gregorio slumped under his heavy words. He had never looked so old as he did then, as though the fire had gone out of him. "You could not." He admitted weakly. "You are so like Mathias. He would never stand for it either. My Prince, you must do as you believe is right. Just never forget who you are. Never forget where you come from."

Enrique swallowed. "I haven't yet. I am a Blue Rogue, but I am Valuan as well, even if I am no longer a prince."

Gregorio's eyes snapped back up. "You will always be _my_ Prince." He declared hoarsely, and Enrique's eyes began to sting from the tears.

"Please...tell my mother I pray for her health every day." Enrique managed to get out.

"I will." Gregorio gave a short nod, and then he looked past Enrique, to Vyse. "Captain Vyse."

"Admiral." Vyse responded, quickly and carefully.

"You take care of him, captain." Gregorio said in warning. "You look after my...my Prince."

"Always." Vyse nodded. "But you could come with us, you know. Look after Enrique yourself. You know Valua's on the wrong track, just like Enrique does. Everything he's told me about, everything that my father and the Esperanzans knew about you admiral, points to you being the kind of man who agrees with the reasons for why the Blue Rogues exist." Enrique looked between his dearest friend and his honorary uncle, stunned that the conversation had led to this point. Vyse was deadly serious and in earnest, and Gregorio stared back with wide eyes. "There is a place for you, admiral, if you wish it. My father, Captain Dyne, would welcome you."

"That…" Gregorio started carefully. He closed his eyes and sighed, and that was it. "No. Thank you, but no. I am an admiral of the Valuan navy. My place is with my men. My honor will stand intact."

Vyse nodded. "Kind of figured you'd say that. Safe travels, admiral. Get your people home. And the next time we fly a flag offering to let you surrender and fly off without a fight…"

"I'll be certain to take the warning under advisement." Gregorio chuckled, nodding one last time to Enrique. "Be well, my Prince. Be strong."

Then Admiral Gregorio turned around and walked away, leaving Enrique to clench his jaw and watch as the last remnant of his old life drifted away from him. He wouldn't cry about it, though. He'd made his choice. It had been the right one.

"Would you really have made that old guy a Blue Rogue?" Aika asked Vyse, tearing Enrique out of his moping.

"In a heartbeat." Vyse said, not even thinking about it. He didn't have to, Enrique knew. But Gregorio's path was not his.

"Well," Enrique said, trying for cheerfulness and failing at it, "if I wasn't disowned and exiled before, I certainly am now."

"Do you regret it?" Vyse asked him carefully. "Not going back with him?"

"No." Enrique shook his head. "I have no doubt that if I had surrendered myself with the condition of allowing you and the others of the _Delphinus_ to fly on, Gregorio would have upheld the terms. But I can do more good for all of you _here_ than I could back in the capital as a prisoner. And I _know_ that is what I would become if I went back home." His smile felt wrong when he made it, and Enrique was glad he didn't have to look at it. "Assuming that Galcian didn't convince my mother I was a traitor, had her issue a decree that stripped me of my title, and then had me executed."

"...Damn." Vyse uttered.

Enrique shook his head, let out one short laugh, and then looked ahead, watching as the _Auriga_ slowly began to move ahead and fly away from them, moving to rejoin the rest of the damaged fleet. "No turning back now, Vyse. There is no way back for me, but to move forwards now. I made my choice when I handed you the keys to the _Delphinus_ and joined your crew."

"Hey." Vyse reached over and squeezed his shoulder. "Look at me." Enrique did so, and Vyse smiled at him. "It was the _right _choice." Enrique nodded mutely and tried to smile back. He knew that Vyse was right, and that no other option would have saved his soul. He just hoped that his heart would get over the hurt and the sense of betrayal for taking up arms against the one faction of the admiralty that had a shred of decency left to them.

Vyse must have sensed that Enrique didn't entirely believe him, because he took a step back and nodded. "Okay. You can stay out here for a while longer. We're going to get back inside and see to finishing up our repairs before we head south. That sailor we met back in Esperanza said that we should find a weak spot in the Dark Rift we might be able to fly through in a more southerly direction."

"Thank you, captain." Enrique said, looking away from the Dark Rift and the skies to the south and focusing instead to the north, where the damaged surviving ships of the 2nd Fleet struggled to stay aloft off the Esperanzan coastline

He paused and frowned, because there appeared to be a ship, much smaller than the frigates of the fleet, closing in on their position. He crossed the deck to the port side and looked north, trying to make it out. And Vyse and the women hadn't seen it, because they were walking close together, their eyes on the foredeck or on the waiting hatch that led into the ship as they talked about the repairs and everything else that had to be done to shift from a warfare footing to exploring the greatest environmental hazard known to the sailors of Mid-Ocean.

"Vyse." Enrique said, softly at first, but then he cleared his throat and repeated it louder, loud enough to make Vyse stop talking to Aika and Fina and look back at him. "Vyse, we have company coming."

In moments, Vyse joined him at the opposite railing, a hand up to his goggle as he zoomed in. "Bad time to not have your binoculars."

"Left them on the bridge." Enrique said. "I suppose I'll have to start taking a pair with me every time I step out here to do some sightseeing."

"Might be a good idea." Vyse laughed softly, and then he laughed louder. "Oh, wow. I don't believe this."

"What?" Enrique asked. "Who's coming? Are those survivors from the 2nd Fleet?"

"No. None of them are dressed for it." Vyse grinned as Aika and Fina rejoined them.

"Who's coming, Vyse?" Fina repeated Enrique's question.

"Near as I can tell...the entire population of Esperanza." Vyse mused. "Aika. Go see to Hans and Lapen, get started on those repairs. Fina? Tell Polly to throw some more food on, we're going to have company soon. Enrique? Stick with me, and grab the guidance flags."

He'd never done it before, but the ship coming towards them wasn't exactly moving at flank speed, which gave Vyse plenty of time to walk Enrique through a rundown of all the different signals a ship taxiing in needed to do so safely. By the time the small patrol boat, so overloaded that it limped along in the sky and lurched every so often finally got into range, Enrique felt he could handle it. So long as he could keep Vyse in eyesight or earshot.

It was so small that they were able to guide it in for a landing on the foredeck, and it groaned a little as the keel, rounded along the bottom for the sake of aerodynamics, hit the metal decking and rocked onto its side. But somehow the old ship held together, to the sound of raucous cheering from its occupants as they disembarked.

The very first one off was the former drunk Enrique had met in Esperanza's tavern, the one that had almost died when Ilchymis tried a spell-based detox that happened too rapidly. He was missing the sword at his waist, but there was a shine of life in his eyes that hadn't been there before. He came to attention in front of Vyse and Enrique and snapped off a salute. "Ensign Don Juan Artours, formerly of His Majesty's Royal Navy, requesting permission to board for myself and the good men and women of Esperanza."

"Granted." Vyse replied immediately, beaming. "Changed your mind about coming along?"

Don looked at the both of them. "You took on the Armada and defeated Gregorio, something that nobody ever managed to do before. A captain with that much skill, a ship this good, a crew that talented? You might just do the impossible. But you're not doing it without me. I've seen the inside, I know more about what to expect than anyone, and I was a damn good helmsman. We're a package deal, though. If I come with, so does everyone else. There's nothing for us here anymore. We have nowhere else to go."

Enrique went still at that declaration, and really _looked_ at Don and all the others who were piling off of the small patrol boat. It was old and decrepit and had barely stayed together on the flight in. Like everything else, everyone else in Esperanza, there was more of it that was rusted through than there was intact.

He had said to Vyse that the way they fought, the way they acted, would make a statement. Their triumph over the 2nd Fleet would definitely send a message, and the way they fought it, offering surrender at every turn would make it all the louder. He just hadn't known at the time that there was another message to offer, and for these men and women, it was even more important than someone taking a stand against the Empire.

The people of Esperanza had been abandoned by his mother, by Galcian, by everyone. They were seen as worthless, cast off and forgotten.

_Valua is not what it once was, my Prince. _The words of Admiral Gregorio had never come to mind so readily as they did now, and Enrique knew at last what to do. What to say.

What to give them.

"Yes you do, Ensign." Enrique told him firmly. "You, and everyone else, are coming with us. You're going to help us carry out the mission that my father, King Mathias, sent you to fulfill 20 years ago. There is a place here on this ship for every one of you, and I will help you all to find it. I am the son of Mathias du Valua, a Blue Rogue in the service of Captain Vyse, confirmed by Dyne the Blue Storm. Prince or no, you are my people, and thus, it is my duty to protect and defend you. Valua became an Empire and took away your dreams." He swallowed and reached a hand out to Don. "The Blue Rogues can give them back."

Don blinked rapidly as he reached a hand back and they clasped arms. Then he pulled, and tugged Enrique in closer "Why are you here now?" He asked softly. "Why do you all come now? When I am _this?"_

Underneath those simple words were years of hurt. Why did they come now, when Don was old and tired? Why did they come now when the last full measure of him and everyone else from Esperanza was nothing but a bitter hope to either see their dream fulfilled or to die in the searching for it?

"We weren't ready." Enrique said honestly. "Vyse has only been a captain in his own right for just under half a year. And had he not set out and done so much, I would never have had the courage to try myself. He has made me a better man." He nodded at Don. "And he can do the same for you."

Don searched his face. "Is there really something on the other side of this Moons-damned maelstrom wall?" He asked. No, it was more like he begged for the answer.

Enrique considered it. Fina had said there was, Fina, who knew so much about so many things and yet was constantly surprised by the simplest aspects of life on Arcadia. There were the legends of Daccat, who was said to have traveled the lands under all six moons, a legend that Valuan historians had considered aggrandizement. And yet Vyse had found his treasure, and now wore a hat said to be so much like that pirate lord's own, a black hat with blue and red fabric and ribbon shot through its edges. A hat he had been gifted by the last son of a clan of Nasrian pirates. And Enrique wondered.

Was it all coincidence? That a Silvite's arrival and capture would cause a young man and his steady, red-haired right hand to rise up and explode from the shadow of his father's legacy? Was it coincidence that he would fight the courage and the audacity, and the _comrades_ to fight Valua, to survive its treachery, to do all the things that if they had been split off and shared between half a dozen other individuals would still make each one of them famous? Was it coincidence that when Enrique was at his lowest point, that Vyse should stumble into his life and offer him a way forward?

Enrique didn't know if he believed that it was all coincidence, or if something else was at work in everything. He shivered to think that the Moons might have a hand in it, like the gods of old.

No. It had to be coincidence. Anything else left him feeling too small and too unworthy.

But perhaps that was exactly what Don felt like. What the others from Esperanza felt like. And if they did…

Enrique steeled himself, and knew what he had to do.

"Come with us. And see for yourself." Enrique let go of Don's hand and gestured to the hatch that led into the ship. He smiled into the worried and nervous faces of faces both old and new, the lost sailors and a woman who had to have been a child of one, a Nasrian serving girl battered down by life but whose eyes burned with the fire of her people.

He led them into the ship, and just as Vyse had done with him, he gave them a place to belong and a dream to hold and friends to cleave to.

He did not believe in divinity or coincidence. But Enrique believed in Vyse.

And he was beginning to believe in himself.


	28. Here Be Monsters

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Twenty-Eight: Here Be Monsters**

Lawrence considered himself a damn decent helmsman and navigator. He'd cut his teeth serving on blockade runners as a cabin boy in the early days of the empire, fast-moving smuggling ships that circumvented the vessels of the Valuan Armada that closed in around the outlying islands that didn't fly their banner and pay their taxes. The ships he served on weren't the only ones who did it, there were also stories of a special kind of thorn in the side of the Empire known as the Blue Rogues who thought themselves better than most, but Lawrence didn't pay them much mind. He was too busy graduating from cabin boy to ship's mate, with his eye set on being a pilot in his own right. Not a captain, though. He'd been told that he didn't have the temperament and patience for it, and as he grew older, he could see how right that statement was. Captains had to deal with people, even the idiots. Lawrence trained to be the best in everything he did; navigation, swordplay, even finance. He didn't have the time for idiots.

It took him years, but by the time he turned 20, Lawrence had gathered up a decent reputation. Decent enough that he was able to quit the ship he was serving on and start demanding a proper contract fee. He never flew with any of the Blue Rogues, though; they never seemed to be in it for the money, which meant they never had the gold to pay him.

By the time he was 27, he'd garnered the nickname of 'Lone Wolf Lawrence' on the Valuan bounty boards, and accrued a single star to his name. He was considered an 'irritant' by the Empire, akin to One-Armed Drachma and The Angel of Death. A disruptive influence, but not one that was a particular threat to their ambitions. Not like Dyne the Blue Storm. Not like the Blue Rogues in general. He never thought he'd end up working for one. It wasn't that he disagreed with their morals, they were fine, but none of them had the money to pay for him. And none of them offered up a worthy challenge for someone of his talents.

Then suddenly, there was Vyse the _Whatever_ standing in front of him as he leaned against the side of the Sailor's Guildhouse on Sailor's Isle, asking him to join up with his crew while someone who looked remarkably like the crown prince of Valua stood beside him.

Lawrence quoted him his contract fee, and because Vyse was a Blue Rogue and quickly becoming the most-wanted man in Mid-Ocean, he fed him the price for what his services would cost for a year's duration. He never expected Vyse to flash him a coin from the legendary Daccat's hoard, or to learn that a single coin was all that Daccat left behind in his hidden tomb.

He _definitely_ didn't expect Vyse to counter his contract price with a bid cut in half...and with the guarantee that Lawrence, who prided himself on being the _best_ behind the wheel of a ship, would learn that he wasn't. It was open-ended, it was wholly subjective, and Lawrence stared at the boy who had only just become a man by his years, one ten years younger than he was, and _took the bet._

Lawrence wagered that he was a better helmsman than Vyse, who spouted off that Daccat, the greatest air pirate in history, had valued _friends, family, and freedom_ over any other treasure in the world. Vyse, who had broken out of the Grand Fortress _twice_ and fought monsters and defeated three Admirals. Lawrence watched, as one of the first members of his crew aboard the most powerful warship that he'd ever laid eyes on, as Vyse and his chief engineer Aika and their friend Fina and the damned Valuan _prince_ traveled from Sailor's Isle to Nasrad, to the Frontier Lands and back, across Valua's own backyard to the North Ocean and south until they reached the newly discovered lands of Ixa'taka. He watched as they flew, as they fought, as they recruited people in every place that they stopped at.

A swarthy fire control officer and an entire gunnery crew. A cutthroat rubenesque merchant. A ship's cook that made the best grumble pie Lawrence knew of. A doctor who was also wanted by Valua, not for piracy but for his skill. They added a lookout and navigator in the North Ocean when they stopped for a meal at a flying restaurant, then turned around and added a second lookout in Ixa'taka, along with a dancer and sous chef, and _two_ ship's engineers when another Blue Rogue asked Vyse to look after his adopted boys. And that time, there had even been alcohol involved. By the time they got to Esperanza, Vyse had taken to wearing an outlandish hat that suited him perfectly, and they picked up a fortuneteller. Hell, they even had a couple of kids who'd joined up and made passable cabin boys and runners...and there was even a stupid dog.

Actually, Lawrence didn't much mind the dog. Even if the name was ridiculous. Who names a dog for the sound it makes…?

Esperanza was the icing on the cake when it came to crewmembers. Led by a ruddy-faced alcoholic, close to two dozen people were added to their crew from that port alone, bringing their numbers up to forty. Or thereabouts. Enough for a ship that had been flying on shoestring shifts to suddenly be staffed the way it was _meant_ to be. Enough that when Fina gushed about the crew manifest to Vyse on the bridge it made Lawrence wonder how this one boy had pulled it off.

He knew why he'd accepted the terms of Vyse's bet and conceded the loss, sacrificing half his pay. Vyse had said that there were better pilots than Lawrence was, and he'd been right. The young captain had pushed himself to the breaking point flying them through the wind tunnel of the Southern Ocean. He'd taken twice the shifts that Lawrence had, then had made sure to teach Lawrence about every little stunt and trick that he knew of so that the ship would keep flying even when he forced himself to not be there. And then Fina and Aika had forced him off of the bridge for a much-deserved rest, which had clearly been what he needed. He was himself again when he finally dragged himself out of the captain's cabin the next day, forever cheerful, forever himself.

Still, as they flew away from the Cape of Good Hope and Esperanza and what was left of Admiral Gregorio's Fleet, Lawrence couldn't help but wonder why so many people followed Vyse. If it was just for money, he would understand it. If it was for revenge, he would understand that as well. Yet only Kazim was forever howling war cries. And only Lawrence had ever made a fuss about his pay.

Lawrence preferred to keep to himself, to do the job he was paid for, and to leave it at that. But he also liked to know who he was working for, and who he was working with. He had never flown with any Blue Rogue before, and claimed it was for a lack of money.

For the first time in years, as they flew closer and closer to the Dark Rift, 'Lone Wolf' Lawrence realized that he would have to do the unthinkable to find his sense of equilibrium on his new posting;

He was going to have to _socialize._

* * *

_160 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_SE of Esperanza, The Dark Rift Entryway_

All hands were at their stations, and the ex-Valuan sailors were all parsed out and assigned to different areas of the ship. Only one of them stood on the bridge with the rest of the main crew, and Lawrence found himself at the helm with both the captain and the old sailor named Don standing off of his shoulders. Behind him, Enrique and Domingo and Fina stood at their stations, with young Marco hovering by the hatch that led from the bridge to the rest of the ship.

The moaning of the Dark Rift passed through the hull, and they all stared with hard eyes at the wall of endless black wind that stretched from one end of the horizon to the other ahead of them, a wall of promised destruction. Vyse looked solemn and focused. Don was as pale as death as he faced the obstacle that had defined his life.

He pointed to a small, by scale, region in the wall which was lighter than the rest of it. As though something illuminated it from the interior. They'd been flying all night in shifts, following the cryptic words of their new helmsman to travel along the Rift in search of an opening, a spot where the winds formed a vortex that burrowed a hole through the wall of wind. Lawrence had begun to think that the older sailor, who smelled like the underside of a dive bar, was either drunk when he put forth the idea or that his memory was so spotty that he'd imagined it and built it up as a real thing. To find out that Don had been telling the truth…

"There." Don whispered. "We flew through there."

"Advice?" Vyse asked him, and Lawrence felt the captain's gaze go past him to the other helmsman. "Anything you remember?"

"Stay off the walls." Don said, shivering a little. "Take the middle of the vortex. It turns into a tunnel, and it breathes. Sometimes in, sometimes out."

"Knowing when it's doing which is important, then." Vyse mused. He looked over to Lawrence. "Take us in. Slow ahead. Keep the maneuvering spinners online."

"If we meet resistance?" Lawrence asked, giving Don a side-eye. "Do we back off and wait for it to reverse?"

"We could." Vyse conceded, looking to Don. "But do you know how long it takes for the currents to reverse?" Don shook his head, the knowledge either lost in the passing of years or never learned. "Well, in that case, if we're against the wind...we fly through it. This ship is powerful enough to break through sky rifts, after all. Time we put that to work."

Lawrence gripped the wheel tighter and nodded, moved the EOT to the ordered speed, and the _Delphinus_ started in. The orange light that had been their constant companion since passing through the World's End sky rift began to fade, and ominous darkness took its place.

They entered into the vortex, and slipped _inside_ of the walls of swirling black.

The ship shivered and shuddered, and Lawrence reached for the EOT, punching up his speed as he felt the vortex try and buffet them backwards.

"That's right." Vyse said, his voice a soft thing meant to be heard, but not to distract. Like a soothing voice. "Feel it out. Listen to her. She'll tell you what she needs."

It was still jarring in spite of Vyse's intention, because it came disturbingly close to the first lessons that Lawrence had gotten in piloting ships, given by old men who only set foot on land once every three months or so, and never for longer than two or three days. Lessons from sailors who had lived their whole lives on voyage, who got feelings about the weather from the aches that they felt, and who spoke of their ships like grand old dames. Most sailors feminized the ships they sailed on, but only a few that Lawrence had ever known had ever been that crazy enough to _believe_ it.

Lawrence had been glad when he'd picked up enough experience of his own to no longer have to deal with being mentored and apprenticed to death by crazy old men (And one woman, Captain Gardenia had been the one who taught him to fight dirty if it meant staying alive) because it had meant that he'd been able to get away from the kind of spiritual sailor's mentality that they always tried to impress on him. He'd never expected to run into it again. Especially from someone as _young_ as Vyse was.

He'd learned to fly without the tricks that the old sailors swore by, but here, with the ship rattling around him even worse than it had in the wind tunnels of the Southern Ocean, Lawrence found himself grasping for the old lessons again.

_What do you need?_

He almost closed his eyes, like Captain Rollings used to sometimes. It was a trick that never failed to scare the younger sailors, even if Rollings flew just as good doing it that way. Somehow, Lawrence held off and instead let his hands, and the vibrations that passed through them, talk to him.

He adjusted the output of the port spinners, increasing power to give him a smidge more lateral movement as they kept on through the tunnel and pushed the EOT up to three-quarters power. He'd seen the turbine output for this ship; it was three times as fast, three times as powerful as the standard Valuan vessels.

At three-quarters speed, with the spinners pushing him to starboard and centering the ship in the passage, the shuddering began to calm and slow. The moaning was still there, but it slipped around the ship, not a force that smashed into it but something that passed it by.

They flew like that, with The Dark Rift an oppressive force all around them that they slipped through in the tunnel and didn't look back from, for a period of time that Lawrence somehow failed to keep track of. It was almost as though the moaning outside drowned out his own thoughts.

Then all at once, the tunnel vanished. The swirling gray and black winds that had clouded in on them from every direction disappeared.

The _Delphinus_ sailed into open, empty airspace, and they heard nothing but the sound of their own engines. Ahead of them in the distance, they saw twisted and gnarled landmasses covered in riotous greenery and glowing fauna. No sunlight penetrated to where they flew, he could see a thick layer of gray and black clouds that formed a clear, delineated ceiling.

"All stop." Vyse ordered, and Lawrence reached for the EOT, dialing it back down. In fifteen seconds, the engines shut down, and the propellor shafts spun down to nothing, leaving the ship to hover in darkness that glowed only from its interior, from enormous plants and motes of drifting light that lingered in the air.

All was quiet, and that was what made Lawrence shiver.

"We're here." Don said faintly. "We're inside."

Inside The Dark Rift, with only the sound of the blood rushing in his ears to break the stillness, Lawrence stared out the window before looking back to Vyse, who was glancing back to Fina. The blond-haired girl was slumped a little at her station, looking pale and ill.

"Headache." Fina uttered with a croak. "Sorry to worry you."

"It's all right." Vyse reassured her, the tension of the moment gone. He walked back to the captain's chair and keyed up the intercom. "All hands, this is the captain. We've crossed into the Dark Rift. Stand down from full alert. Everyone not on for this shift, go ahead and knock off for some grub and some rest before you're up. Good work." He cut the transmission and nodded at Lawrence. "That includes you, Mr. Lawrence."

"Yes, captain." The brown-haired helmsman nodded, looking over to Don and waiting until the shaking sailor had a hand on the telemotor before backing away. "I am relieved."

* * *

_Evening_

After five hours of rest, which would have been longer if that stupid dog hadn't started scraching at the door of his cabin, Lawrence made his way down to the galley with Pow trotting along at his heels. The purple-haired Huskra ruffed softly, and Lawrence almost felt the urge to roll his eyes at its antics. The furry beast was behaved enough to lean its head on his leg when he was feeling out of sorts without jumping all over him, at least. If it wanted to plod along beside him, he wasn't going to stop it.

He walked into the galley with its opulent hanging chandelier and long wooden tables...and reinforced moonglass windows that let the crew look and see the conditions outside. During the quieter parts of the voyage, it meant that they could watch the sunrise, or the sunsets, or just watch the clouds roll by as they passed through blue skies. In the Southern Ocean, everything had taken on a gray sheen. But here in the Dark Rift? Darkness. Endless darkness, like a dimly lit room with multiple candles set up around it. The light from the interior of the ship was brighter than what came from the outside. He quickly looked away from them and tried to find something else to occupy his attention, and to his relief, he saw both Marco and Pinta come racing towards him.

"Boys." He greeted them coolly. Lawrence looked down to Pow, panting at his side. "I think you misplaced something."

"Aw, gee Mr. Lawrence, we didn't misplace him, Pow just went wandering." Pinta answered, his chubby belly sticking out from under his shirt a little bit. "Was he a good boy for you?"

"He woke me up." Laurence muttered. "So I'm on the fence about it. Think you can take care of him now?"

"Sure thing." Marco chirped in, grabbing at the dog's collar and walking him away. Lawrence watched the boys and their dog slip over to their corner of the room and glanced around the galley, seeing who was grabbing their evening meal. He caught sight of Khazim, his gunner's goggles and his hat sitting on the table off of his left arm, and came to a decision. After grabbing a tray and going through the line to get some of Polly's homecooked skyfish casserole and canned applesauce, he walked over and sat down across from Khazim, nodding once at the man.

He'd sat beside the man before, and the extent of their conversations so far had consisted of nods on his part, and monosyllabic grunts from Khazim. Today, he would change that.

"Khazim." Lawrence began. "You have a moment to talk?"

The gunnery officer glanced up at him with his beady brown-black eyes and frowned. "Khazim will allow this." Without his hat, the barrel-chested soldier looked less fierce than usual, his beard rugged instead of menacing. "So long as we may eat peacefully. The meal is quite good." He dug out a small phial full of powdered red pepper flakes from his homeland and sprinkled more over his half-eaten casserole, which was already coated with it. Lawrence made a face as Khazim offered it over to him. "Care for some spice?"

"Some." Lawrence said, carefully shaking out a small amount onto his spoon before handing the phial back. He didn't mind a little kick, but it was a miracle that Khazim could still _breathe_ after having that much. "I had a question about why you stayed."

Khazim looked up at him once, then shoveled a heaping forkful of dinner into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. He swallowed and cocked his head to the side. "Pardon?"

"When we were sailing through the Frontier Lands, north of Nasrad...We did battle with a Valuan task force hunting down Komullah. At the party afterwards, Admiral Komullah asked you and your men if you would join his remnant fleet to continue battling against the Empire. You refused him. Why?"

Khazim raised an eyebrow and shoveled another forkful of food into his mouth. "Khazim _shaid_ why." He garbled out with his mouth still full.

"Because you took the Oath of the Blue Rogues." Lawrence hummed, finally digging into his own meal. There was silence for a time as they ate, and then he spoke again. "So did I. But Oaths can be revoked. Contracts can be broken. You are a soldier of your homeland. Why did you turn away from that in the first place, and become a pirate? Why did you not go running back to it when you had the chance?"

Khazim swallowed, laughed, and reached for his ale, a sweeter Nasrian blend that they'd picked up in Maramba before starting towards their real destination. After a swig, he grinned at Lawrence. "You think Khazim stays out of obligation?"

"I do." Lawrence shrugged. "I accepted a contract, and I'm in the employ of Captain Vyse for a year."

"Perhaps this is so for you, but Khazim and his men stay for another reason. Loyalty."

"Shouldn't your first loyalty be to Nasr?"

"A mercenary thinks he can teach me about loyalty." Khazim snorts, and lifted the last bite of his dinner. "You don't see it, do you?" He asked, stuffing it into his mouth and chewing away.

Lawrence felt the sudden urge to let one of his eyebrows twitch. "If I didn't, I wouldn't ask."

Khazim held up a hand to stop him from saying anything else as he chewed and swallowed, then followed it with the last swigs of his ale. Only after exhaling in satisfaction did the gunner fix his gaze on Lawrence. "What he offered was more than money, and more than a chance at revenge. I could tell you _exactly_ why I stay with him and this crew, and you wouldn't believe me. Because you don't see it yet." Khazim stood and collected his tray. "Listen to what your heart is telling you. If you have not forgotten how to listen to it."

He scooped up his square goggles and his hat, nodded once, and left. Lawrence sat in silence and worked his way through his meal, trying to think about what exactly Khazim had been driving at.

It wasn't enough information. He would need to ask around further.

* * *

_161 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The silence of The Dark Rift's interior remained an unsettling and haunting presence as they sailed through it. Domingo and Enrique had their hands full in mapping it out, and they were still exploring the opening area and its mangled landscape. There were shipwrecks dotted about, a fortunate few who had been grounded instead of falling into the clouds of the abyss or being torn apart by the Dark Rift's outer wall.

"It could be like a maze." Domingo observed, running a hand through his spiked hair as he stood in his gaudy orange jacket. "Based on what we've seen so far, this is kind of a, a pocket of quiet airspace surrounded by interior skyrifts on every side."

"Have we located any survivors?" Vyse asked, not looking at the map of the interior slowly taking shape, but staring outside the bridge viewports at a strange and enormous glowing flower easily a third the size of the ship a half mile off, jutting up stubbornly from an outcropping of rock.

"Of the shipwrecks we've come across...no, sir." Domingo said dimly. "We've found bodies, withered to skeletons and picked apart by the wildlife that exists here, but nobody living yet. We've found supplies, at least. The food's all gone bad, but the things like sailcloth and moonstone fuel and repair materials are intact. There's been almost no weathering at all."

"Why would there be storms inside of a storm?" Vyse asked, half to himself.

Enrique looked up from the cartography table and lifted an eyebrow. "Vyse, what makes you so sure that there's anyone _alive_ to find in this dismal place? The last expeditions were…"

_Twenty years ago,_ Lawrence said to himself, finishing the sentence Enrique couldn't.

Vyse shrugged. "Our cook, Polly, had a husband who was part of these expeditions. And she's sure that he's still alive, because she said that she'd have 'felt it' if he died. You could dismiss it as wishful thinking, but I'm of a mind to bet on long odds. So we keep looking, all right? If we try to race through this place, we're only going to get lost and get kicked back out the way we came in, or worse, we'll never get out at all."

"And here I thought you found refuge in audacity." Enrique joked, which made Vyse look over and grin.

"Only when I know the odds, Enrique."

It was so easy to focus on the needs of the moment and to not pay attention to anyone else on the bridge. He was the helmsman, after all, and that made it his job to put everyone else out of his mind and concentrate on flying the ship. But there were some noises that tore your mind away from whatever you were focusing on, that made you turn and address them. Like the soft cry of painful whimpering from a girl, or a woman.

So Lawrence brought the ship to a stop, knowing that there were no crosswinds or currents about that would drive the _Delphinus_ into the nearby landmass, parked it into a hover and set the ship's spinners to maintain position, and whirled about in time to see Fina crumple over her station with her strange supernatural companion Cupil hovering over her head, chirping in worry. The girl had a hand pressed to her forehead and was trying not to cry.

And Vyse was at her side in an instant, bracing her and keeping her from slumping to the floor. He guided her into the chair beside her station and took her hand into his, squeezing it.

"Fina, talk to me." Vyse said worriedly.

"I'm...I'm fine, it's just…"

"You are _not_ fine." Vyse interrupted her with a harsh whisper. "You've never been like this before. Stop lying to me, to yourself. Tell me what's going on."

It didn't feel like the level of concern a captain would typically give to a member of his crew, it felt more like something a close friend would give to another. The sob the girl let out at that made his heart twinge, and Lawrence wondered why he cared.

"There's something about this place that...It's an _ache_ in my head and in my heart and I don't know why. I don't know what's causing it." Fina confessed, crumpling into his shirt. He held her for a moment, stroking her back. "Something is _wrong_ with this place. I don't know what, but it _hurts_ me."

In seconds, Vyse had picked her up in a bridal carry and had the blond-haired girl in the silver dress cradled to his chest.

"Enrique." The captain said, a fire burning in her eyes as Fina kept whimpering, and held tightly to him. "You have the bridge. Call Aika and tell her to report to the infirmary." He only waited long enough for the dazed ex-Prince to nod before sweeping his gaze around the bridge. "The rest of you. Finish exploring this 'pocket' of the rift and mapping it out. Any shipwrecks we find, mark and send down a team to investigate for survivors and supplies, and to recover logbooks and crew manifests. We're not letting the lost sailors go forgotten here. We left a beacon where we came in; figure out what other passages there are, but don't go through them yet."

Vyse left the bridge, carrying the girl as though it was the most natural thing in the world. And maybe it was. There was no mistaking that Vyse cared about the people who were on his crew more than most, though as Lawrence turned to Enrique and waited for the officer on the bridge to issue him orders, he blinked to see how Enrique stared after Vyse and the incapacitated Fina with hard, almost accusing eyes.

He wondered what that was about. The moment passed, and Enrique turned to face him. "Resume our course, Mr. Lawrence." Enrique said crisply. "We have mapping to finish."

"Aye, sir." Lawrence reached for the EOT as Enrique sat down in the captain's chair and toggled the intercom, calling down to engineering to get a hold of Aika.

The Dark Rift beckoned to them in ominous silence.

* * *

_Delphinus Conning Tower_

_162 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Lawrence couldn't escape all of his habits about limiting his time around others so easily, so he cobbled together a list of crewmembers that, to his mind, had less clear cut reasons for joining up and which he could find in places other than the bridge and the galley. One of them was the lookout that they had picked up in Horteka, an Ixa'takan man who was always wearing a mask named Tikatika. The fellow had sharp hearing and even sharper eyesight, so when Lawrence climbed up the conning tower's ladder to get to the crow's nest at the highest point of the ship, the hatch that kept the exterior platform sealed off from the rest of the ship opened right before his hand could reach for it. And Tikatika was staring down at him with his mouth and hidden eyes devoid of emotion.

"You are not a lookout." Tikatika said.

"No. I'm a helmsman. But I'm off shift and thought I'd come up here to have a look around." Lawrence said to him. Tikatika cocked his head to the side, analyzing his statement, and he felt the need to then add, "And I brought a snack?"

"Ah." Tikatika retreated away from the crow's nest hatch and gave him room to climb up and out. The shift in the air he felt immediately as soon as his head was out in the open. The sky inside the Dark Rift felt moist, and neither intolerably hot or unfavorably cold. It simply _was_, a neutral temperature that left one feeling a little disturbed. It took him almost ten seconds to place what it was, although the silence should have been a clue. The air didn't move here, not enough for a seasoned sailor of Mid-Ocean.

Tikatika stood on the railed platform atop the crow's nest with a climber's web strapped around his thighs and legs, and a braided rope with a springlock carabiner hooked solidly around the thickest bar of the railing. An old-fashioned shortbow and a quiver of arrows were slung over his back. He waited expectantly as Lawrence dug in his pocket and came out with a pressed bar of dried fruits and nuts wrapped in paper, then took the snack with a nod and set to work on it.

Lawrence stared out into the darkness around them, both unsettled and in awe of the landscape. It was unlike anything he'd ever seen in his life. There was no sunlight, yet life, albeit of stranger varieties than he'd ever seen before, somehow flourished.

"It is strange here." Tikatika observed.

"Yeah. Definitely different. Beautiful."

"And yet wrong." Tikatika said, swallowing down the last bite of the ration bar. He extended one arm as he shoved the wrapper into a belt pouch, and pointed off into the distance towards what looked, to Lawrence, like an irregularity in the smooth and gently swirling walls of the pocket they were in. "You see there?" He asked Lawrence, and the helmsman squinted and stared. "That is the opening we came in through." Then his arm moved, and he pointed at two others in plain view, then towards the rocky wall full of holes. "And there are three more openings in this 'pocket' as the crew calls it. This place is nothing like my home. The air is moist, but there is no warmth of life, or of spirit. There is only emptiness here, and we must find the correct way through."

Lawrence took the opening for what it was. "You miss your home."

Tikatika paused, for a moment. "Yes."

"Why did you leave it?" Lawrence asked, and watched as Tikatika broke into an open smile.

"Did you know," the Ixa'takan hunter began conversationally, "That Vyse and the Ladies Aika and Fina freed our people?"

Lawrence had heard something to that effect in the rumors before Vyse and Enrique had stumbled across him that day, but even when they had been traveling through Ixa'taka and visiting people, he'd never heard Vyse bring it up. He settled for a nod.

"The Valuans, the false Quetya, came and imprisoned so many of our people in the sacred mountain. I had the sharpest eyes of all of the hunters, and yet I did not see them coming. I could not warn my people fast enough. I failed them, and in my shame, I trained to grow stronger. To see further. And still it was not enough. All my strength was not enough to save them from the mines of the sacred mountain. But Vyse and his comrades were." Tikatika smiled at that, eyes hidden behind his mask, and he crossed his arms.

"You joined out of obligation, then? Because you felt you owed them a debt?" Lawrence blinked. Tikatika laughed at that, just two short barks before he jerked his head skyward and reached for his bow. Nocking an arrow, he released the shot and sighed.

"No. I owe them no life debt. I offered. They refused. Blue Rogues do not demand servants, or servitude. I came because they were strong enough to do what we could not. They saved our people. I must become strong enough to do the same."

With a wet thud, a Looper colored blue fell to the deck two paces away from Lawrence with an arrow through its head, and he jerked away from it and slammed up against the guardrail. Tikatika chuckled and slung his bow back over his shoulder.

"These can be quite tasty, if prepared correctly. Please take that to Lady Polly or the Lady Fatima for me, please."

* * *

Some captains were very strict and rigid when it came to authorized areas. Vyse had a much more hands-off approach in that regard. He didn't particularly care who wandered where, and actually _encouraged_ the practice of getting to know the ship that one sailed on, so long as it didn't interfere with normal operations and you weren't vagabonding when you were supposed to be on shift.

Maybe that was why nobody gave him a second glance when he wandered down into the engine room of the _Delphinus_ and stopped at the base of one of the enormous reciprocating engines that powered a propellor shaft. Lawrence stared up at the towering behemoth of refined and wrought metal, a masterpiece of modern shipbuilding and mechanical engineering. Drawing power from potent steam pipes kept fed by the ship's moonstone reactors, the gargantuan assembly pushed pistons the size of a human body to keep it all moving.

"Hell of a thing, ain't it." A gruff masculine voice said, drawing Lawrence's eyes away from the machinery, and to a man with a gaudy purple scarf tied around his neck, with blond hair tied back into a tight ponytail behind his head. "Never thought I'd _see_ an engine this big, much less get the chance to work on one." The blond-haired man looked to be around 25 or so, a few years younger than Lawrence but still older than their captain.

Lawrence nodded once. "Lapen, right?"

"Yeah." The mechanic and inventor had a crowbar in his hand, and he slung it casually over his shoulder as he turned to address him. "You're one of the ship's pilots, right? The one that they picked up on Sailor's Island?"

"Yes."

"And you _really_ got Vyse to agree to your ridiculous fee?" Lapen raised an eyebrow, and Lawrence couldn't help but blink. He hadn't been going around bragging about it, so where had the man heard about his going rate? Lapen kept on speaking. "I knew about you before. Lone Wolf Lawrence. I kept tabs on all the low-level bounties, and you kept showing up in the same ports I did."

"Oh." Mollified, Lawrence shrugged. "No, he's paying me a little less these days."

"How'd he manage that?" Lapen frowned. "Everything I ever heard about you always seemed to say you were a stubborn kind of a fella when it came to money."

"No less stubborn than you were, 'Loose Cannon Lapen.' Rumors aboard the ship say that you got recruited after putting a few holes in the deck armor."

"Yeah, well." Lapen shrugged. "Anyhow. What do you want? A guided tour? Because we're a little busy."

"Don't listen to him!" A younger voice shouted out from nearby, and they turned to see a brown-haired youth of around Vyse's age come strolling up with a massive wrench that looked to double as a weapon easily. "I've been busy, but my big brother here's been dragging his feet on the system inspections."

"Hans, for the love of the Moons, would you stop calling me that?"

"Calling you what?" Hans asked innocently, sticking a hand into the side of his engineer's coveralls.

"Your brother!"

"But we _are_ brothers."

"Adopted!" Lapen sputtered, and Lawrence had to bite the inside of his cheek to resist the urge to bust out into a grin. "That doesn't count!"

"Really?" Hans murmured, glancing briefly at Lawrence before turning his gaze back on Lapen full force. "That wasn't what you said back in Horteka when you and my father got drunk and patched the fences."

"Hey." Lapen snarled and brandished a finger at the younger man's face. "You can't hold me accountable for the things that a man says when he's dead drunk on that Ixa'takan devil's drink you call Loqua."

"I'll have to take your word for it, since our father never let me have any." Hans rolled his eyes. "Anyhow, who's your friend?"

"He's not my friend, he just came wandering down here for…" Lapen started, then froze and turned towards Lawrence again. "Why are you here?"

"I actually came to talk to you." Lawrence explained, only a little disappointed that the squabbling appeared to be at an end. "If you weren't busy."

Hans sighed. "He's not that busy. Take five, brother. And then meet me at the moonstone reactors, we need to check valences for the maintenance log. Aika wants it done before we start our next maneuvers." He waved one last time at Lawrence, then went plodding off.

"So. Your brother." Lawrence said, when the younger brown-haired man was out of earshot.

"Adopted." Lapen grumbled, rubbing at his scalp. "We were both taken in by this Blue Rogue who's stuck in Ixa'taka right now, guy named Centime. Decent mechanic for someone who prefers dragging in every orphan and runaway he finds so he can give them a home. Centime asked me to take him along, seeing as Hans was deadset on going with Vyse, and…"

"Let me guess." Lawrence cut in. "Your adopted father wanted someone he trusted looking out for him."

Lapen flinched a little. "Trust...might be too strong a word."

"Maybe." Lawrence searched the engineer's unsteady face. "I only had one question. Why did you join up with Vyse?"

Lapen looked down at the deck. "Because I screwed up. I got mad and went nuts, thinking that Centime and the rest of 'em had run off and abandoned me. After Vyse told me where Centime was, what he'd been doing, I asked for him to give me a ride there so I could hash things out with the old man."

Lawrence nodded. A matter of necessity and convenience, then. It explained why he'd given up his ways of being a Black Pirate. But…

"Why did you stay?" Lawrence pressed him. "Once you got to Ixa'taka, you didn't have to stay aboard with Hans. It's not as though there aren't others aboard who can do the work, especially now after Esperanza."

Lapen sighed. "You serious? Why do you wanna know that?" He looked over to Lawrence suspiciously. "What are you digging for anyways?"

"I'm looking for perspective." Lawrence confessed. "Perspective on Vyse. On what makes people sign on, and stay with him."

Lapen rubbed at his chin. "Well. I suppose I could help, but...It'll cost ya."

"I've got a bottle of 15 year old Nasultan's Reserve brandy I've kept under lock and key." Lawrence offered. "Come clean and I'd be willing to share it."

Lapen's eyes sparkled. "Oh, wow. The good shit. Okay, deal." He extended his arm, and after a pause, Lawrence clasped the man's forearm and they shook on it. "Fine. Long story short? Family."

"I thought you didn't have any. You were just protesting to Hans that you weren't related."

"Yeah. By blood, we aren't." Lapen shrugged. "But, that never mattered to Centime. He never cared if we were Valuan, or a Mid-Ocean colonist, or Nasrian. Hell, he even had Ixa'takan kids running around him and his wife Carol. His biggest lesson was always that _family is the people you care about._ I forgot that for a while, when I thought he'd left me behind. Turned out he hadn't, and I'd been on the warpath for nothing. I was a miserable kid growing up, and he still put up with me. And he took me back and hugged me, no questions asked, and Missus Carol even made me dinner. I could have stayed with him, or taken my chances going solo. But after everything I'd done, all the mistakes I'd made, he didn't throw me out. He asked me to look after Hans."

Lapen drew in a deep breath and let it out easy. "We're all screwups, you know. At least, it feels that way. And Vyse doesn't care where we came from, just like my old man. He doesn't care about the mistakes we've made. The only thing he cares about is doing better, and moving on." He hoisted the crowbar off of his shoulder and nodded. "We're a part of his crew, and Vyse treats us like family. This seems as good a place as any to stay for right now. And somebody has to keep my little brother from getting a disease the first time he gets the itch to spend the night with a woman." He smirked at that. "I think in Hans' case, though, that's not much of an issue. The kid's got a knack for engines, but damn if he isn't a blushing wallflower. All right, Lone Wolf. The next time we're both off-shift, you owe me a bottle of the best brandy under Mid-Ocean."

"I honor my contracts." Lawrence reminded the other man stiffly. Lapen considered him for a moment, then grinned wolfishly.

"Yeah. I hear you do." He clicked his tongue once, then went sauntering off, leaving Lawrence in the belly of the ship's machinery.

* * *

_164 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

In the end, they had mapped out the entry pocket within the Dark Rift completely, placed markers for orientation in case they got turned around...and picked one of the unexplored vortices at random. To everyone's relief, it didn't kick them back out the way they had come, or worse, go into a dead end. It led to another pocket within the Rift, one much smaller than the first one. There were two floating islands within it, but also...Another shipwreck. And somehow Lawrence found himself on the exploration team, going down with Aika and Don and a couple of the Esperanzan sailors. It was a near thing for Vyse coming along with them, but he stopped trying to force himself on the team when both Aika and Fina put their foot down and all but yelled him out for even thinking about leaving the ship without its captain. Fina, especially, seemed shaken by the thought of him leaving the ship even temporarily. Everyone was nervous and on edge, but the blond-haired girl, the _Silvite_ as Ilchymis had mentioned once in passing during his routine examination, took their fears about the Dark Rift to new extremes. She'd been edgy before. She looked to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown when they had left.

He shook his head as he brought the skiff to a stop next to the crashed shipwreck and looked over to Aika. "Ready here. Mooring lines?" Aika made a gesture to one of the sailors up at the bow, and they quickly tied the skiff to the side of the broken-apart wooden ship.

The core of the shipwreck exploratory team remained very much the same, with a cadre of Esperanzans working under a sailor named Daniels, who was never without a yellow scarf dangling from his neck. They moved with their usual quickness to suss out the ship's state and to try and reach the cargo hold to make an accounting of any possible supplies, leaving one of the core group to go with the expedition leader and their tag-alongs. Namely, Don went with Lawrence and Aika to see if they could find any survivors or bodies in the upper reaches of the ship, along with paperwork and logs and provenance to determine what ship they'd stumbled across. Don froze as soon as they stepped onto what remained of the bridge with its broken in windows, still as a statue as he glanced around.

"Don?" Aika asked, caught off guard by his behavior. It looked like he'd seen a ghost, even though Aika scowled and refused to even think of such a possibility any time anyone had ever brought it up. Lawrence had heard her utter the word _'Rixis'_ under her breath the last time somebody had tried to broach the topic.

"I know this ship." Don uttered softly under his breath. "Why do I know this ship?"

"If Daniels were here, he might have an answer for you." Aika told him. "I can only guess. Maybe there's something here that could tell you why. We've had some good luck finding logbooks before." The redhead glanced at the broken windows and shook her head. "Maybe not here."

Don walked onto the bridge and walked without hesitation to a locked cabinet along the wall. Without wasting a breath, he drew a hammer from his belt and smashed the lock in, then swung it open and came up with a green-covered logbook, undamaged by the elements, albeit with a bent spine from where it had rested opened and tilted on its side for 20 odd years. Shaky hands picked it up and he stared at the faded ink on yellowing paper with wide open eyes.

"This is my handwriting." He whispered, clutching the logbook tight to his chest and looking up at Lawrence and Aika. "This is _my fucking ship."_

Aika blinked. "Oh." She schooled her features. "I'm sorry, Don."

Lawrence could see a great deal of grief on the man's face, but Don managed to keep his wits about him. "It was a long time ago. At least I know that it didn't sink into the abyss like I thought. It got picked up and tossed into here." He tucked the logbook in his pocket and exhaled. "Come on. Let's finish our look-around."

The one thing that the Dark Rift had in abundance was silence, and their presence broke it. They went for the first floor and stopped dead in their tracks. Or rather, Aika did and held up a hand to make Lawrence and the others stop. It took the helmsman a moment to hear it, but he did. The sound of crackling and popping. Like from a campfire. And it was coming from behind the door that led, once upon a time, to the captain's quarters.

"Something's here." Aika murmured, and Lawrence drew his sword. The Blue Rogue checked the straps on her glove before reaching for her boomerang, and they looked over to Don, who took a deep breath before moving up to the door. He pushed it open and stepped inside with the two fighters right behind him.

They all froze when they looked across the cabin and saw a ragged, emaciated man with a beard that went down to his navel sitting in front of a fire built out of scrap wood. Somehow, he'd rigged up a fire pit that kept it from burning through the floorboards. What was left of his clothes was coated in grime and worn down to rags. He didn't even react as they paused and started to watch him.

"Sweet moons." Aika uttered faintly. "There's a survivor."

Lawrence wanted to believe that the man wasn't a member of the ill-fated expeditions from Esperanza 20 years ago. Surely, nobody could have lived that long in this mess, even if there was air and water and things that could be eaten. If this man had been on his own for that long, he might have gone insane.

Perhaps he had. He only looked up after Don had gotten to within 5 feet of him, and there was no glint of recognition in his eyes. "No." The man said hoarsely.

Don stopped. "No? No, what?"

"Not real. Go away. Never real." The man added, and looked back down into the crackling embers of his fire, hunching over his legs. Don made a strangled noise as he kept staring at the man, and he took a step closer.

"Look at me." Don told the man. "Let me look at your face."

"Hm. Never said that before. Like he doesn't know who I am. He always knows who I am." The man muttered, still looking away. Don reached out and grabbed gently at his beard, turning his face towards him, and the fellow's dull eyes blinked, sharpening slightly. "Never touched me before. Can't touch me. Not real."

"This is real." Don said softly, and he searched the man's rugged face, shaking his head. "Are...what's your name?"

The man blinked. He could talk, but Lawrence realized in that moment that he couldn't _remember._

"I know you." Don said, his face swelling with grief. "Even with this ridiculous beard, I know you. I thought you were dead, but you're not. You've been trapped here, all this time. You're my friend Robinson."

The man snorted, and tried to look away, but Don tugged on his beard, holding him still. "You _are_ Robinson. And your wife is with us. You remember her? Polly? You always talked about her. About the little girl you had before you set sail. Anne. They were the dearest things in your life."

Something in the marooned sailor's eyes shifted at the mention of those names, and he started to blink rapidly. It was because he was crying.

"Not real." The man Don called Robinson said hoarsely, and finally broke Don's grip so he could shake his head and press the heels of his palms against his skull. "Not real. _Not real."_

"She's on board our ship. Right now, Robinson. Your _wife_ is on board our ship, and has been cooking up a storm keeping us all fed. And she's got help now, you remember that Nasrian girl who came with us to settle in Esperanza? Fatima? She's helping her now, ever since a captain crazy enough to challenge the Rift broke us out of our funk and dragged us here. You're coming with us."

Robinson didn't quite seem to grasp onto the idea that this was _real_ and it was actually _happening,_ not when they walked him out of the captain's cabin, not when they met with the rest of their away team and learned that the hold was barren of anything useful. Robinson didn't accept that this wasn't some more frightening and potent hallucination cobbled together by his mind when they dragged him onto the skiff and flew up and away from his prison towards the _Delphinus_ that hovered nearby. He violently protested that they were all lies, that none of it was real as faces that knew him and that he had known reappeared and cried out his name, looking older and more worn than they were in his memories. Lawrence could only watch as the Esperanzans gathered around him, wept, held him close, none moreso than Don, wondering what would finally make the man admit that he wasn't suffering from a fever dream and that after 20 long years, salvation had come.

In the end, it was the presence of his wife, rounder than she had been but no less adoring of him, that shattered the walls of his disbelief and restored memories lost or suppressed. Robinson wept in her arms as Polly, the cook who had joined up on Sailor's Island for the _chance_ of finding her husband, bit her lip and cried through a wide smile, whispering to him of how good their daughter had grown up to be. For Robinson, the road to healing and recovery was a long one, but he was with his wife, and Polly seemed whole and content in a way that Lawrence had never seen before.

And both she and her husband Robinson swore undying gratitude to Vyse for it.

* * *

_167 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Flying within the confines of the Dark Rift for a week had led to some uncomfortable close calls, but a greater understanding of how to suss out the vortexes that peppered the walls of the pockets of space spaces dotted inside of the permanent storm. It had allowed them to discover Robinson, reunite Don with his long-lost friend and Polly with her long-lost husband. It had given the crew additional confidence in their talents, in each other, and in their captain. But not everyone aboard found that the trip was easier as it went along. Fina, to the ongoing concern of Captain Vyse, and Chief Engineer Aika, and Prince Enrique, only worsened the deeper they flew into the Dark Rift. In hindsight, Lawrence realized he should have been paying more attention to her, like the fabled canary in the moonstone mine. For a reason that none of them rightly understood, she was a living barometer to the environment they were passing through, and it grew worse the quieter it got outside. The deeper they got, the more tunnels they passed through and the more areas they explored, the already faint noises of the whistling wind beyond the pockets decreased further, making the _Delphinus_ almost uncomfortably loud in its operations. Fina no longer came on the bridge and spent her time down with Ilchymis, either helping to tend to his medicinal herb garden or assisting him in medical.

It was a warning that none of them understood until it was too late. Until they passed through one more flashing vortex, which experience had taught them meant a vortex that connected to an adjacent pocket of safe airspace, and found themselves in a dark place gleaming with black light and completely still and silent.

As silent as a grave.

Lawrence shivered as he stood at the wheel at the end of his shift, with Don having come aboard the bridge five minutes ago during their flight through the next vortex. Lawrence stared off into the distance of the pocket that seemed to stretch on to forever; an optical illusion crafted by the environment that lacked any piece of land. He was about to comment on the stillness when Don came up and stood beside him. "This is different." The old sailor rumbled.

"There's nothing here." Lawrence answered him, slowing the ship to quarter-speed and guiding them towards the center of the open space. "Everywhere else we've been in here so far, there were scraps of land. Shipwrecks. Even creatures."

"I was wondering why we had Looper kebabs the other night." Don offered jokingly. Lawrence ignored the opening. "But here, there's nothing. Like there was nothing here to begin with, or…" He stopped talking as a wave of something unlike light, but visible in the darkness all the same pulsed up from below, from the depths of the abyss far beneath them. It passed by the ship harmlessly, but glimmers of spectral radiance erupted in the wave's wake. It took on the form of a faint and glimmering miniature sky full of stars in a false night. Tiny bits and pieces of unknown moonstone hovered all around them in incomprehensible configurations, gleaming the same dark light that had been carried by that pulsing wave.

Then Don swore loudly, and Lawrence jolted to throw the ship into full reverse as an enormous shard hovering in the heart of the void, perilously close to them, finally appeared in the gleaming.

"Fuck!" Lawrence gasped as the _Delphinus_ lurched to a stop and began to reluctantly pull back from the obstacle. "Sorry captain, it…"

"At ease, Mr. Lawrence. I saw it too." Vyse said, walking over to stand beside them at the helm. "The damn thing came out of nowhere." All three of them stared at the menacing shard of translucent black crystal, invisible until the wave from below had struck it and made it resonate with a clinging aura. An aura painted a sickening ultraviolet, pulsing in time with another wave of power that came up.

"What in the blessed Moons is it?" Don finally got out, a strangled distance in his voice that wasn't quite reverence. "That thing's as big as a mountain!"

"No." Vyse said, tearing his gaze away from the gleaming black crystal ahead of them to look at all the smaller shards around it. "It was bigger, once."

Nobody on the bridge knew what to say after that, though if the rest were like Lawrence, they latched onto the meaning of it immediately. What they were looking at had been bigger than a mountain. What was left of it, what was visible hung like a scar in front of them, but it had been more once. Moonstones were powerful things. The smaller pieces infused their weapons, powered their ships, and provided the foci needed for spellcasting. The Moon Crystals that Vyse and his original team were chasing after were reportedly powerful enough to control terrible monsters or supply the energy needs of a continent.

The black shard that glowed ultraviolet was the fractured corpse of something much larger. And even looking at it for too long made him feel dizzy and on the edge of panic.

Then the intercom went off, and everyone on the bridge flinched when the sounds of agonized, terrified screaming, female screaming, broke the silence.

_"Vyse!" _It was Ilchymis calling, and that meant that the woman shrieking as though she were being flayed alive…

_**Fina.**_

_"Vyse, what the hell's going on?! Fina just lost it! I need help down here, now! She's...Shit, Fina, don't...DON'T! No! Stop! Stop beating your head into the floor!"_

Vyse was as white as a sheet. "Stop her from hurting herself!"

_"She's stronger than I am, I can barely hold her down! Whatever we sailed into, it's doing something to her! She was clawing her face off before! Get down here NOW!"_

Vyse sucked in a breath. "Enrique?"

"I have the bridge. Go, Vyse. _Go."_ The Prince snapped at him, as shaken by Ilchymis's report as anyone else. Vyse lingered a moment longer, just enough time to look to Don and Lawrence and to stare at them with haunted eyes.

"Get us the _fuck_ out of here." He whispered, and finally ran off, faster than the mercenary had ever seen him run before. Shaken, Lawrence turned the ship around and went sailing away from the heart of the void at the center of the Dark Rift, marking the vortex that they'd come in through and trusting to Don to find the one that would lead further east. With their compasses still spinning wildly in the rift, Don was the best hope they had to escape it.

Lawrence got off shift half an hour later and went down to the galley for a drink to settle his nerves. There were very few people present when he did so; Only Polly and Fatima were running the kitchen, Robinson was sitting up next to the bar, keeping his wife within eyesight if not arm's reach at all times.

Of Vyse or Aika or Fina, there was no sign. But Ilchymis was there with a bottle of the strongest triple-distilled grain alcohol sitting at the back table, his face now whiter than his soiled physician's robes.

Robes spattered with specks of blood.

* * *

_169 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Galley_

The tone on the ship was muted after their close encounter with what Domingo had marked down as "The Black Moon Stone" in the Discovery log, in the absence of Vyse doing it. Don's almost preternatural talent for distinguishing vortexes that were probable dead-ends or wrong-way turns from the correct path forward had been their saving grace. Whereas before there had been a sense of confidence and nervous energy, it had been sapped in the wake of what Fina had done and suffered through when they touched the center of the Dark Rift and the terrifying power that lay at its heart. It hadn't taken long for the news of what had happened to get out through the power of gossip, even if Aika and Vyse and Enrique weren't saying anything about it. Fina, whose condition had been steadily worsening from a slight headache when they first entered the Dark Rift, had been down in the ship's makeshift arboretum tending to the medicinal plants with Ilchymis and Merida. When they had passed through the fatal vortex that took them to the center of the Rift, she had immediately stiffened up and clutched first at her chest, and then slumped to her knees and started shrieking and trying to claw her face off and her eyes out. When Ilchymis had managed to pin her down with his own body weight and then trap her arms so she couldn't lacerate her already bleeding face any further, she'd started slamming her forehead into the metal decking, breaking the skin even worse and even fracturing her skull before Merida had wedged a leg under her head to keep her from making it worse. The Ixa'takan dancer had suffered severe bruising when Fina kept trying anyways, and it wasn't until Vyse arrived that Ilchymis was able to get free of her long enough to prepare a sedative to put her out. Merida had been so shaken by the ordeal that it left her mute for an hour before Polly had gotten the story out of her.

That had been two days ago, and nobody on the crew aside from Ilchymis had seen Fina since, and Ilchymis wasn't saying a damn word aside from that she was being cared for. In that time, Vyse and Aika had been less visible presences around the ship as well, with Enrique being given more time at the helm of the ship.

Maybe that was why Lawrence jumped when he was pulled out of his woolgathering as Vyse suddenly appeared beside him in the chow line. The helmsman did a double take as he saw how tired the younger man looked. Or maybe tired wasn't the right word. _Distraught_ came closer to what he was seeing.

"Captain." Lawrence greeted him stiffly.

"Lawrence." Vyse said in return, giving him a brief nod. That was usually the extent of their off-the-clock conversations, but some wiggling sense of guilt made him say something more. It was apparently as jarring to Vyse to hear as it was to him for saying it.

"How's Fina doing?"

It wasn't until then that Lawrence realized just how much of a mask the captain had been wearing. He'd been tired, but that had been him putting on a brave face. Now, as the question sank in, the Blue Rogue almost crumpled on the spot.

"She'll be okay." The younger man said. "We got to her in time. Aika and Ilchymis patched her up, stopped the swelling. But until we know for certain that we're out of this, it's…" He stopped, choking on empty air, and swallowed. "It's better if, if she…"

And that answered so many questions about why Vyse looked miserable.

Lawrence nodded. "We'll get out of here, sir. We've come this far." He stepped back and allowed Vyse to go ahead of him in line, which surprised the Blue Rogue and got a thankful nod out of him. Vyse took a tray and loaded it up high with food, then turned around and walked back out of the galley. Perhaps to keep vigil at his- at Fina's bedside. Lawrence tried to put the thought out of his mind as he went for his own meal, and he gave Robinson a respectful nod before waving at Polly and Fatima back behind the galley.

"You two ever get a break?"

"Oh, aye, we get breaks." Polly smiled. "We don't always bother with a hot meal, after all, and bread keeps for a day or two. Don't you worry none about us. Breakfast tomorrow's cold leftovers anyways. And things've gotten a little easier since Fatima started helpin' out in the kitchen, easing the pressure off poor Merida."

He took his meal with a nod and wandered to his table in the back, determined to have a meal in peace before turning in for the night. It stood to reason that it lasted all of a minute before somebody decided to sit across from him, and he nearly stood up and walked away before he realized that this particular person was someone he'd been wanting to talk to anyways.

"Kalifa." Lawrence greeted the Maramban fortuneteller coolly. "You do not usually sit here."

"I am not usually required to." She answered, her head tilted far enough that he could not make out her eyes through her thick glasses. "However, the Moons have spoken. You are in search of answers, and you have not yet spoken to me. I should be offended." Kalifa raised up her glass of watered down Nasrian ale and took a long, slow drink.

"I'm not in need of your cards or a spinning chunk of glass."

She swallowed. "True, but you still wished to ask me something. And you haven't yet." Kalifa set the glass back down and reached for her flatware. "Ask me now."

"Why did you decide to come along?" Lawrence asked her. "You serve no vital purpose on this ship. You aren't a sailor, and you barely qualify as entertainment. You had a life for yourself in Maramba, our last stop before we set sail for Esperanza. You knew what Vyse was trying to do. You knew how dangerous it would be. What on earth possessed you to come along and suffer through this?"

Kalifa cackled. "What is it that you think I do, exactly?"

"You swindle gullible fools out of their money by telling them exactly what they want to hear." He replied without a pause.

"Rarely. Only for the fools who I can be of no help to." Kalifa said back to him, the mirth gone from her voice. "You think me a swindler. A charlatan."

"All fortunetellers are charlatans."

"Hm." Kalifa removed her glasses and cleaned them off with her napkin, keeping her eyes shut tightly as she did so. If she opened them, it wasn't until she slipped them back on again. "Perhaps most are. But then again, most are not able to listen to the whispers from the Moons. Or they are unwilling to. Shall I tell you your fortune?"

"I don't care to hear it." Lawrence growled out. "I make my own destiny."

"Before, you did. But now, you serve Vyse as a member of this crew. A crewmate on this ship. And that will change your destiny more than you know." She finally started to smile again, an enigmatic expression that made him shiver a little. "You can sense it, I think. You are afraid of it. That is why you have been speaking to so many people here, when before you had no interest in it. But now? Now, you wonder what sort of man you have agreed to sail for. And you are _concerned."_

"I'm not afraid of him."

"I did not say afraid." Kalifa said, gesturing to him. "You just did. But to answer your question, I needed you to first think about your own. What would make a woman leave the comforts of home and the steady work of a career in fortunetelling behind to travel to the corners of the world with a Blue Rogue on a ship of wonders?"

Lawrence didn't have an answer, and judging by how her smirk widened, Kalifa knew it.

"I listen to the Moons. I listen to the world around me. I pay attention, and because I do, I see things, hear things, sense things others do not. And all of my senses and my instincts tell me that I must be here. That something rather spectacular is coming. A great story is being made here. I do not know where it leads...but I want to see it." Kalifa finished carving off a thick slice of her meat and chewed thoughtfully, swallowing it back before nodding at him. "It is not _your_ answer for why you are here, but it is mine. And perhaps it gives you the perspective you wished to hear."

Lawrence mustered a grunt in reply. "I will take it under consideration." Kalifa nodded, but didn't move. "Was there something else you needed?"

"Yes." Kalifa was grinning now. "Are you aware of betting going on aboard?"

Lawrence narrowed his eyes at her. "Bets? On what?"

Kalifa cackled and brought out a small journal, but she angled it so it was not visible elsewhere in the room. "Gossip runs rampant on a ship, even one this size. Especially on one this size. There's been quite a few rumors on which way our dashing captain's heart turns. He has two very beautiful women all but hanging off his arms, you know."

"I am aware."

"Perhaps you would care to place a bet?" Kalifa said, softer than before. "On who is in love with who? It is a minimum bet of five gold coins. The odds are currently 3 to 5, with Fina as the dark horse."

Lawrence thought about it, then shook his head and dug out ten gold coins. It wasn't as though he had occasion to spend any of it on anything else right now, after all. "I say that Vyse's heart belongs to Fina."

"Oh?" Kalifa asked. "Hoping for the bigger payout, or do you know something that the rest of the ship doesn't?"

Lawrence thought about how broken Vyse looked with Fina still unconscious and recovering. He thought of how the captain had taken a tray and left, in no mood to do anything but go back to her side. And yet it was tempered by what he had seen on Sailor's Island, when he had called Aika 'his girl' and then the redhead had kissed him for it. Vyse hadn't kissed her back then, he remembered. The people who figured that Vyse and Aika were together...They weren't seeing the whole picture.

"If you are not a charlatan, Kalifa, you are still a swindler." Lawrence told her, sliding the money over to her side of the table. The coins disappeared in a sweep of her hand. "You will get no insight from me."

"I see." Kalifa mused, adding his bid to the ledger within her notebook with careful scratches of a quill pen. He couldn't help but look and read her handwriting upside down, and frowned to see some of the other people who had placed bets. Domingo? Tikatika? Osman? Even Ilchymis? "I am surprised at you, Lawrence."

"Why?"

"For someone who claims to be a _Lone Wolf,_ you are becoming decidedly loyal in protecting the privacy of your captain." She pointed out with one last smile as she tucked the ledger back away again. She picked up her tray and nodded before walking off, leaving him to sit in stunned silence, back in the privacy and solitude he preferred.

Or, the solitude that he _used_ to prefer.

* * *

_Delphinus_

_Rec Room_

_171 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

If there was one thing that Lawrence refused to skimp on, it was his training. Just because he spent most of his time piloting the ship and tag-teaming with Don and the captain for shifts at the wheel didn't mean he let his other skills go to seed. And while he hadn't had to draw his cutlass in anger since he'd joined up with the _Delphinus,_ Lawrence had been in too many fights and seen too much trouble to dismiss the need for maintaining his swordsmanship. Vyse was apparently a skilled fighter in his own right, as he carried twin swords for a dual-sword style that offered a greater balance of offense and defense, but their schedules never really aligned when Lawrence had the time to train. To the fortunes of himself and others on the crew, Prince Enrique had taken it upon himself to serve as the combat instructor for anyone willing to learn, when they had the time for it.

Enrique's skill with his rapier was world-class, and he had mopped the floor with Lawrence at their first training session weeks ago. The 'prince in exile' as Enrique preferred to think of himself knew full well the value of speed and how a blade's flourish was more often than not meant as a distraction to keep an opponent off-balance and reacting incorrectly. He employed solid footwork and misdirects, and had the honed habit of never breaking eye contact with his opponent, relying on the wider scope of his peripheral vision to track unexpected blows. Enrique approached swordfighting like it was a dance, and he shifted the cadence and the tempo as though moving to a band that only he could hear. For Lawrence, who had studied only the basics of swordfighting and then sprinkled in enough dirty fighting techniques to survive boarding attempts and the like, it had been an entirely new experience. A mostly humbling one.

It was a sign of how dramatically things had changed, that Enrique, who must have learned from the best swordsmen that money and blind loyalty to an Empire could buy, was now offering training to anyone with the time and inclination to learn. Even little Marco, who went through warmups with a wooden training blade every morning even when Enrique wasn't down belowdecks to guide him through it. As he was this morning, with Enrique working Lawrence through his paces while somehow keeping a part of his attention turned towards Marco close nearby.

"Adjust the placement of your front foot, Marco. Keep the weight on the ball of it, not the heel, and pointed straight on." Enrique said between short, huffing breaths. "You remember why?" The former prince asked, even as he pulled one shoulder back hard to let Lawrence's cutlass sing past the front of his now turned body harmlessly

The boy's face was scrunched up in concentration. "So I can...react to the unexpected. And turn fast?"

"Precisely." Enrique nodded, putting the whole of his focus back onto Lawrence, and the mercenary hissed a little as he felt the shift when Enrique turned all of his considerable talent and ruthless ability on him. It didn't take long at all before Enrique had disarmed him, sending his cutlass clattering and sliding across the floor with the blunted point of his opponent's rapier pressed perilously close to his chest. Lawrence stared down at the vulcanized white rubber bulb that served as the blade's stop point and swallowed. Enrique held it there for the space of three heartbeats, then pulled it back and smiled. "Good. You lasted eight seconds that time when I began my riposte. You are improving."

"You're frighteningly good at this." Lawrence conceded, stepping away and moving to retrieve his sword. He slid it back into the scabbard hanging from his sword belt with the definitive slide of metal on metal, then looked back. "No wonder you have taken it upon yourself to be the Captain's personal trainer, if everyone of high status in the Empire fights like you do."

"More or less." Enrique smiled innocently. "Not everyone uses a single blade in the duelist's style as I do. Among the admiralty, Gregorio favors a weighted spear mace and a shield. De Loco has never fought in melee combat, and likely prefers firearms. Vigoro wields a 'cannon club' of such size that it would be impractical to anyone else, and Galcian uses a broadsword that could best be described as a weighted _cleaver_ in the place of a more refined weapon."

Lawrence nodded. "Why did you do it?" He asked the prince, for that was a question that had been burning in his mind for a while now, though he'd never worked up enough motivation to ask it properly. "Leaving the Empire behind, leaving the palace behind, all of that easy living. What made you spring Vyse from the Grand Fortress, hand him the keys to what was supposed to be your flagship, and now train others to fight against your own people?"

Enrique looked back at him, eyebrow raised. "As I recall, when we first met you, Vyse made it a point to say that he _stole it_ all from me."

"A joke between the two of you. No, Enrique. You committed to this cause with open arms and no hesitation. So why?"

"Because Vyse is an honorable man, even for as young as he is." Enrique answered plainly. "Because he is like his father, in the ways that matter. I heard of his achievements, his courage and his bravery, and I saw someone who I would aspire to emulate. Because what the Empire and my mother and Galcian are doing is wrong, and I have been screaming about it for years and nobody listened. Because I had begun to think that the world was twisted, and wrong, and that it was beyond saving, that the Empire would swallow it all and then crumble and leave Arcadia in ruins." Enrique removed the rubberized stop point of his rapier and whipped it around in the open air a few times before sheathing it. "But when I am here, with Vyse, I see a chance to change all of that. To stop Galcian's ambitions, to save not only my kingdom by blunting the Empire's reach, but to save the world from it as well. Because Vyse lives by the Code of the Blue Rogues, which I have taken the Oath to serve under, and I have more pride now in how I live and fight than I've ever had. My honor is intact, my heart is unwavering, and my blade is _his."_

Lawrence blinked as Enrique's eyes misted up a bit and the prince swallowed loudly before laughing a bit. "Though being here among such proud and stalwart hearts leaves me prone to dramatics. Especially when people ask me questions that have obvious answers."

"Obvious?" Lawrence repeated dubiously.

Enrique shrugged and glanced up at the ship's chronometer hanging from the wall. "You're due on station on the bridge in 20 minutes. If you hurry, you should be able to get some breakfast before you head up." And he smiled.

* * *

_Afternoon_

Another vortex had led them to a new pocket that they had no memory of seeing before, and more importantly, no hovering beacon pulsing with light to mark that they had come this way before. They launched another from one of the torpedo tubes and left it hovering in their wake, a propellor spinning at its top to keep it afloat while the base of it strobed a brilliant white every five seconds. The moonstone power cell running it would die in a month, but they would be out of here by then.

So they all hoped.

Lawrence was holding station as another away team investigated a nearby shipwreck which looked wildly different from anything that they'd ever seen. It wasn't a ship that had come in recently, it looked _older._ And there were parts of it that didn't seem to line up with any ship design that Lawrence had ever heard of. They'd come a long ways, and they had seen no shipwrecks for a while after their encounter with the black moonstone at the heart of the Dark Rift.

For days, there had been one constant remark uttered and repeated by Vyse and Aika and Enrique; _There is more beyond the Dark Rift. There is another side to this storm. Fina said there is. _And none of them ever uttered those words with a trace of doubt, like Fina was clinging to some religious belief that had to be taken on blind faith. No. When they said it, it was with a surety that came from knowing. From trusting someone so implicitly that you took them at face value.

Looking at a ship that Lawrence had never seen before, he began to wonder if the Silvite, who was finally _out_ of being under sedation and improving to 'steady headache' levels, even if she wasn't allowed back on the bridge, might be right after all.

"Hey, kid." The voice of Don pulled Lawrence out of his thoughts again, and he glanced over to see Don walking over with a tea mug in one hand. There was a moment that the mercenary thought that the older helmsman might be drinking coffee, the strange drink that they had picked up in Ixa'taka and Fina was addicted to, but he didn't smell it wafting in the air. So, tea then. Lawrence glanced up at the bridge chronometer.

"You've still got half an hour before your shift starts."

"What can I say?" Don chuckled. "You spend 20 years living your life at the bottom of a bottle, you miss some things. I'd live on the bridge if they delivered food and there was a working toilet and a hammock." Then the older man looked out through the forward windows and caught sight of the ship that they were hovering in close proximity to, and frowned. "That's not one of our ships."

"Yeah." Lawrence agreed, quiet again. More like himself. Don got closer to the reinforced moonstone glass and stared harder.

"That ship is _old._ Like, Daccat-era old."

"Yeah."

"That's not all Mid-Ocean construction, either. Where the hell did this thing come from?"

"The other side?" Lawrence posited innocently, and that finally got Don to gape like a skyfish. The man looked ready to argue the point, but Lawrence just raised an eyebrow.

Don took a longer draw of his tea, which was still hot enough to be steaming. "Shit." He whispered.

"You should have an interesting shift." Lawrence remarked, and he turned away from the shipwreck to examine the rest of their current pocket. "How do you know which vortex to take?"

"Feelings, sometimes. Observation, others." Don explained. "The way the wind moves around it, or what color the flashes of light in it are. I avoid the red ones. I look for the blue."

"Blue flashes." Lawrence repeated. Don smiled. "Always?"

"Not always." Don shrugged. "Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them."

"If you can't trust your eyes, and you can't trust your ears because it's so _quiet_ inside this mess, then what do you trust?" Lawrence asked, a little irritated at how cryptic the man could be. Don didn't answer him, and the delay made Lawrence side-eye the man to see if he was thinking or just spacing off. The old sailor was doing neither, and was instead staring thoughtfully out at the rest of their surroundings. At what seemed to be a swirling column of lights off in the distance, rising up between two pieces of a massive island that had been broken in two.

"You trust the environment." Don murmured, pointing off in the distance. "Are those skyfish?"

"No skyfish I've ever seen. Most fish don't glow."

"Most skyfish don't live inside a permanent storm, surrounded in darkness." Don pointed out. "And yet things still grow on the islands inside here. Life finds a way. No, if I had to guess...they're going towards something." The old man smiled. "And as soon as the away crew's aboard, that's where we're headed."

"Hm." Lawrence nodded. "As good a guess as any. We didn't find any vortexes down here on the lower side. Which is a little odd; most pockets have two or three red herrings to mislead us."

"A ship none of us can attribute the construction of. A pocket that feels different." Don mused, polishing off the rest of his tea in a gulp that must have scalded his throat. "And Fina, back on her feet even if she's on medical leave. Something's different, Lawrence."

"You think we're…"

"Don't say it. _Don't."_ Don cut him off sharply. "I won't have you hexing us with such ill-thought words."

Lawrence shrugged. "You're superstitious."

"I am an old sailor who stared at a wall of darkness at the edge of the world for most of his life, and who now flies inside of it. I am a man who found his best friend after meeting his wife, and smiles to see them reunited and forever at the other's side. I am living in an adventure story, as we all are. Yes, Lawrence. I'm superstitious." Don's eyes glimmered. "I have reason to be."

Lawrence suppressed his shiver, but he didn't leave the bridge even when Don assumed the helm. He stayed on to watch, because as Domingo finished charting the latest pocket's interior and looked up to Vyse, he felt a strange, nervous energy that hadn't been there before. One that was shared by everyone on the bridge.

Something was different as Don flew them up along the column of bioluminescent skyfish, and the crew all realized that they formed an arrow pointing to a singular vortex up near the top of the pocket.

Lawrence had never believed in destiny, or that things were fore-ordained. They weren't for him at least.

But perhaps they were for Vyse. Perhaps that was why they were succeeding where so many had failed. Maybe that was why Kalifa joined to see the story play out, and maybe something was at work that Don refused to let Lawrence give utterance to.

Maybe Vyse, their captain and a leader of Blue Rogues, was destined to see them through this.

* * *

There was one question that none of them had bothered to ask about the Dark Rift, once they had realized that the spaces within were somehow able to support life. Nobody in the crew had asked just how big that life could grow.

Considering the size of the school of glowing fish that they had passed by only a scant hour and a half before, the answer should have been chillingly apparent before they were staring a monster in the face.

_Very large indeed._ And very menacing. Like a twisted anglerfish, the thing that was as big as the _Delphinus_ sat within the lone vortex on the other end of a safe zone that had no other life inside of it, just broken and floating rocks and the sounds of low, howling winds. That missing sound of air currents did more to bolster them than anything else as the klaxons summoning everyone to battle stations droned on and on.

After a minute of them blazing away, Vyse finally cut the noise off and reached for the intercom, just as Aika reached the bridge. The captain looked over his shoulder to the redhead and gave her a short nod. "Listen up, everyone. We've reached a different pocket that we've never encountered before, and we're finally hearing the wind again. That's something I'm taking as a good sign that we're close to getting out of here. Our only problem is that there's some very stubborn wildlife standing in our way, in the form of a fish big enough to give Rhaknam a run for its money in size. Hopefully not in power, though. Remember your duties, do your jobs well, and I'll be there to greet you on the other side of it." He stepped away from his chair and moved to the two feeder lines that led into the ship's Moonstone Reservoir and the charging capacitors for the Moonstone Cannon. "Aika, take one. I've got the other."

"Aye, captain." The chief engineer did so, and smirked a little after. "In the mood for some fried fish tonight, I take it?"

"I'm in the mood to get the hell out of here and that thing's not budging. Even with signal flares going off next to its face."

The time it took for the cannon to finish charging up was less than it had been, especially with two people pouring their spiritual energy into it in tandem, and the _Delphinus_ trembled when it fired off the potent beam of searing light and energy. Stuck as the creature was, it could do nothing but take the hit clean to the face, and the shriek the thing made thundered in the near silence. That was when everything went sideways.

It might have been staying in the vortex, but after suffering that first blow that had charred and traumatized it, the massive anglerfish spun out of its makeshift nest and started to swirl around the ship, throwing a spray of illuminated poison over the whole of the ship's forward end. The acrid smell of potent fumes immediately stung at Lawrence's nostrils, but he held on as Vyse swore.

"Hell, I hope that doesn't eat through armor plating." Vyse coughed, watching it glow along the bow, wafting vapors as it gassed off. "I think he just painted us as a target in here."

"It would make sense, considering how dark it gets inside this Rift." Enrique agreed.

"Bring us about, Don. We need to see this thing to target it." Vyse ordered.

"If it cleared out of the vortex, captain, shouldn't we just dive through and leave it behind?" Domingo asked cautiously.

_"Captain, it's coming up behind us!" _The voice of Tikatika rattling through the intercom was jarring, and they heard the sound of him slamming the hatch on the lookout's tower shut, which meant he was diving for cover. _"Brace for impact!"_

The entire ship shuddered like a leaf in the wind as the hull's armor plating groaned from a heavy weight settling around it.

And then everyone aboard screamed when a monstrous face with pale white eyes and a mouth full of teeth leaned in towards the windows of the bridge and opened wide with a snarl.

"Khazim!" Vyse raced for the speaking tubes by the helm and activated the line for firing control. "It's wrapped around the ship! Fire everything!"

They couldn't make out the position of the guns, for as much as the massive titan within the Dark Rift blocked out their whole view. But they heard and felt the massive main batteries of the _Delphinus_ go off all at once, and there was no mistaking how the beast howled and shrieked with deafening volume after the warshots impacted and detonated.

The _Delphinus_ shuddered again as the fish let go of it, and they were treated to the sight of its long, eel-like tail snaking off into the darkness, coated in its own blood and the glowing remains of its own spray attack where it had wrapped around the ship's affected bow.

_"Reloading, captain! Can you give us a bearing for the torpedoes?"_

"Negative. Too dark in here. How many signal flares do we have left, Khazim?"

_"Three dozen."_

"Load up six of them in the torpedo tubes and give us a circular spacing. Right now, we're hunting a monster in its own element." Vyse clenched his hand into a fist. "Time to even the odds. Aika, you ready for round two?"

"Always." Aika said, looking over to Enrique, who hadn't yet needed to charge up the main cannon. "But I wouldn't mind an assist." It took a little finagling, but Enrique slipped in between Aika and Vyse, grabbing their hands and forming a circuit for the three of them to power the cannon back up again as Khazim put the plan into motion and Don slowly circled the ship around inside of the launching flares.

The illumination they provided was a drop in the bucket, but it made the total darkness close to them ease off just enough that things moved to a shade of gray. Enough for everyone to be able to pick up on movement again.

Enough for Tikatika, who had resumed his post after ducking for cover, to see the massive behemoth coming for them.

_"Captain, the beast is coming off of our left, closing fast!"_

"Charge...ready!" Vyse gasped, the glow of the aura around him and Aika and Enrique fading as he let go. "Don! Skid hard about and put our nose to port! Ready the Moonstone Cannon for firing!"

Lawrence was at Don's side immediately, working the spinners to help guide the massive ship into a controlled turn that would keep its bearing steady and help them to line up on target. The targeting reticule for the Moonstone Cannon kicked on, projected onto the glass, and as they finished the turn, the looming form of the anglerfish with that elongated tail came flying in towards them out of the darkness. So close to the targeting reticule that the adjustment took less than a second's worth of delicate nudging.

The shot lined up perfectly, and Lawrence found himself reaching for the trigger even as he heard Vyse suck in a breath.

_"FIRE!"_ Vyse thundered, and the ship bucked as another blindingly bright beam set the dark of the pocket ablaze, dismissing every shadow. The creature coming for them hunted in darkness and its milky white eyes were useless for sighting danger. It never saw the shot coming.

Already weakened and bleeding, the thing was bisected from head to tail from the shot, and the two pieces of it fluttered once in the fading light before falling towards the depths of the abyss.

Lawrence finally breathed as the cannon's barrel retracted back into the ship and the hull's sections closed back up around it.

Aika let out a yell of triumph and tackled Vyse from the side in a hug that had the captain laughing in relief. It was Enrique who sighed and went over to the intercom by the captain's chair, accessing every line in the ship.

"All hands, this is the bridge. Stand down from battle footing. The monster has been dispatched. Rather efficiently."

As cheers rose up in answer, Vyse finally found it in him to hug Aika back in a one-armed hug as he reached for Don and Lawrence with the other.

"Well done, you two." Vyse congratulated them, as Don shook his hand. "Good teamwork there at the end. But you really should go get some rack time, Mr. Lawrence."

Lawrence considered that. "Is that an order, captain? If it's all right with you, I would like to stay. For...if this ends up being the vortex that takes us out of here…"

Vyse's face softened up. "No, I get that. You want to see it too. Matter of fact, there's someone else who should see this." He let go of Aika and went over to his chair, making one more call.

Five minutes later, a still shaky Fina was brought onto the bridge, escorted by Marco and Ilchymis, and they put the blond-haired girl in the captain's chair with Vyse and Aika each standing on either side of her as Don sailed them out through the vortex that the anglerfish had been guarding so zealously.

Through the graying winds, through an ominous tunnel of uniform size so like all the others that they had flown through for days and days, the _Delphinus_ sailed as the crew watched and hoped to see something new.

They emerged on the other side of it, not into further darkness and silence, but into the low and steady roar of Arcadia's skies, and the lingering orange and pink glow of a fading sunset.

Nobody dared speak as the _Delphinus_ sailed forward, sailed beyond the Dark Rift. They weren't sure if it was a lie. If they had ended up back on the western side.

But then Lawrence and Don had the same thought and looked down at the compass stationed at the telemotor that had been spinning uselessly the entire time they'd been inside the miasma of bleak hopelessness.

The compass had them pointed east. Flying east. On the other side of the rift.

Beyond the edge of the world.

Fina let out a happy sob, one hand pressed over her heart. "It's gone. It's _gone. _I can't feel the pressure anymore!" At last, everyone roared in celebration.

* * *

_Beyond The Dark Rift_

_Unknown Skies, Uncharted Island_

_171 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

There was another sky rift to their north, but unlike the Dark Rift that they had cleared in 11 days, it was a regular one. They would be sailing through it tomorrow. Tonight, though, as the orange skies had given way to a dark blue starry one devoid of a moon overhead, the majority of the crew of the _Delphinus_ had a different mission.

On the first scrap of land that they had found large enough to land five skiffs on and have plenty of room to spare, every Esperanzan sailor and most of the Mid-Ocean crew aside from the Ixa'takan contingent and Ilchymis and Pow stood, holding flickering lanterns and candles and even small moonlights for those who had magic as Robinson and Don planted the tattered remains of the expedition flag that had hung in the captain's cabin of their old ship. Strapped to a new flagpole, the weary canvas caught in the breeze and flared proudly.

Lawrence masked his face in solemnity, matching the expression that Vyse wore as Aika and Fina stood to his left, the girl's hands gripped together tightly. The Esperanzans were in tears, but stood their ground and did not weep. All waited in silence as Don gave Robinson a tight hug and guided him back to the warm and waiting arms of his wife Polly, and then the mustachioed helmsman coughed once for the attention of the gathering, standing next to the flagpole.

"Twenty years ago, King Mathias du Valua sponsored an expedition to explore the unknown in the midst of war. We were the best of the Royal Navy. Now, we few who are left stand on the opposite side of the Dark Rift. We have lost so many to the Rift, to time, and to hopelessness. We have braved the wall at the end of the world and found more on the other side. This flag we fly not for our lost kingdom, but for ourselves. For our _own_ dreams, at last realized."

Don paused, taking a moment to compose himself. "I never thought I would be standing here. I never thought I would see the world beyond the Dark Rift. I thought I would die within sight of it." He wiped fresh tears out of his eyes. "There were so many who deserved to be here. To see what we have seen. Sailors and soldiers who were _more_ than I am now. Who were more than I was."

So many heads bowed at that, and Lawrence could feel the shadow of loss lingering around the Esperanzans as they thought of all the people that they had known who hadn't made it.

Moons, they were so _few_ compared to how many there had been before. That they had gotten even one back…

"I can't bring them back. We can't bring any of them back, or talk to them beyond the grave to tell them that our sacrifices were worth it. But I can _live_ in honor of their can live, and tell our stories. Tell theirs. Because we were given a chance to."

Don gestured to Vyse and to Enrique. "I am proud to call myself a Blue Rogue. I am proud to sail with this crew. I don't know how much time I have left on Arcadia, or if I'm fated to die on this expedition of theirs to save the world and stop the Empire, or if I'll live through it. But I know that I will live without regrets. This is my second chance, and I _won't waste a Moons-damned second of it._ We are the legacy of that expedition. We are the survivors of Esperanza, and our hope is restored. We have seen the fulfillment of one dream." Don smiled tearfully around their circle of men and women. "It's high time we searched for others."

Enrique came forth with a crate full of small shot glasses and a bottle of Valuan rye whiskey, and in short order they were filled and passed around. Lawrence expected Don to make the toast, but instead the old sailor who had been the figurehead for all the Esperanzans looked to Enrique and nodded, giving him the privilege.

Enrique bit his lip and raised his glass. "For old dreams realized. To new horizons. May the Moons bless our cause, and may we be worthy of the sacrifices made by those who are not here with us."

They all drank as one, no eye as dry as the alcohol was. And then with one last salute to the flag that marked the passing of that long-ago expedition, the crew all started to pile back onto their skiffs for the journey back to the _Delphinus_ and to their warm bunks and beds.

Yet Vyse and Aika and Fina and Enrique lingered near the flag, having taken a skiff of their own to the site and not beholden to the ships of the rest. Lawrence found himself lingering and watching as Aika and Fina pulled in around Vyse and Enrique as the prince finally let himself cry and fell into the captain's arms, with the two women holding the men tight.

Enrique wept for the sailors that his country had failed, for the relief of having given them peace at last. He wept for his friends, a Blue Rogue and the two women who had taken him in and made a prince-in-exile a friend and shown him a way forward. Lawrence blinked, and finally saw it.

Just as Kalifa had told him, he had been searching for answers. He finally had them.

"Something wrong, Lawrence?" Vyse said, when the group hug came to an end and the captain recognized that they were not alone.

"No, sir." Lawrence shook his head. "I've been trying to figure you out for a long time now, and I think I finally understand."

Vyse cocked his head to the side. "Understand what?"

"Why people come to you." Lawrence told him. "Why they stay in your employ, when they aren't motivated by money or a need for vengeance against Valua."

"Indeed?" Enrique spoke up, curious. "And why is that, exactly, Mr. Lawrence?"

"You make everyone on this crew believe that they can reach, and find, the best version of themselves. People come to you because you _shine,_ and they want to reflect even a little bit of that light back." Lawrence said, never looking away from the captain. "I couldn't see it before. I do now."

Vyse nodded, absorbing that. "So how does that change you, exactly?"

"Before, I was part of your crew because I was paid to be." Lawrence told him. "Now...I _want_ to be here."

Vyse smiled, and so did Aika and Fina.

"Welcome aboard, Mr. Lawrence. We're glad to have you." Vyse said.

Lawrence was still a wolf in his heart, but he wasn't a Lone Wolf any longer.

He had found a pack to belong to at last.


	29. Blue Rogue Rising

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Twenty-Nine: Blue Rogue Rising**

* * *

When Clara was a little girl, she had a very good life. Her father was a freckled, ginger-haired traveling merchant who crossed the skies of Mid-Ocean, and her mother was a fair-haired dressmaker who liked to make women's underthings as a side business, and they all sailed together on her father's ship. He would ferry food and supplies and his mother would work on commission, making tailored dresses to the ladies at the various towns and ports they stopped in. She learned her numbers and her writing from her father, she learned the basics of sewing and clothes-making from her mother, and from the both of them she learned about love.

The war between the kingdoms of Valua and Nasr ruined many lives. King Mathias was killed, and Valua became an empire. Independent merchants like Clara's father suddenly found it harder to do business in Mid-Ocean when the neighboring superpowers were at war with one another and loyalty oaths became a requirement. It eventually became deadly.

When Clara was eight, her father's ship was attacked. She didn't know why. It would be years before she was able to ask around, find someone with access to the records, and discover that he had taken up smuggling in order to make ends meet for his family when the war made reputable free trade dry up. Their ship boarded by the Valuans, she was forced to watch as he was dragged away in chains. He'd had a look of such panic and fear, not for himself, but for the wife and the daughter he was leaving behind. Their ship and almost everything that had been theirs, been their home, was impounded, and she and her mother were dropped off at Sailor's Isle with what they could carry. A week later, they heard the news that her father had been executed in the newly repurposed 'Imperial Coliseum', one of dozens of Black Pirates, smugglers, and war profiteers whose lives were snuffed out in an instant to make a point. Her mother cried all night. Clara somehow found the strength not to.

They made do, and while there was little need for a dressmaker in the trade hub, there was plenty of call for tailors and seamstresses who could put together cheap clothes and patch up torn ones. For Clara, the loss of her father and her home almost broke her. Her mother kept it together, put on a brave face, and told her daughter that _'things could be worse.'_ It wasn't until she turned 10, on a walk back to their shack with groceries from the market that Clara finally realized why her mother kept saying that over and over with a fragile smile. The sight of a humiliated, sobbing woman lying in the alley in torn clothes with a sailor pulling his pants back up and throwing a handful of gold coins at her drove the point home in a way that no words ever could. For all that they had lost, for all they didn't have, it hadn't come to that.

But it almost did. Clara was 11 when her mother suddenly got sick; sicker than the medicine and the doctors they could afford could deal with. Her mother didn't even try to use the money for herself; she told her daughter to save it, reminded her how to hide it.

_'Be brave. Be kind. Always try to smile. You're going to grow up to be someone wonderful, and don't let anyone tell you that you aren't. Find someone you can love with your whole heart, my dove...I never regretted loving your father. He gave me you.'_

She died a week later. A month after that, Clara was struggling to keep the business going, because so many people thought that a 'little girl' couldn't manage the work. The customers drifted off, and though her mother had left her everything, it wasn't enough. It was never enough, not for a girl that wasn't even 12 yet.

Her life could have gone in a very different direction if one particular client hadn't stumbled into her shack the day before she was going to be kicked out of it. That was when Clara met Carol, a tired-looking woman who came in with a pile of kid's clothes in need of patching and stitching, saying that she needed help to get it all done. Clara did her best, better than Carol had thought she might be able to, and the woman and the girl found that they got along well. Well enough, up until Carol asked where Clara's mother was, the rumored 'seamstress of Sailor's Island' that she'd come in search of to begin with.

Had anyone else asked, Clara would have managed to keep her mouth shut, smile, and keep it to the simple answer of 'she passed on.' But Carol looked at her with those soft, empathetic eyes, and Clara fell apart crying. It was all too much too fast for her. The death of her father. The loss of their home. Her mother's illness and passing. And now on the edge of poverty, of - of something _worse_ than sewing up torn shirts and pants, of being forced to live on the street and ending up like the woman she'd seen who got coins thrown at her for being _used_ by men, Carol arrived. It was too much, and Carol pulled her in tightly for a hug.

_'If you have nowhere else to go, you are welcome to come with me and my husband. You can meet all the children he keeps adopting that you've been mending shirts for. If there is somewhere we can take you away from here, to family, I will yell at him and make him do it. Anywhere except Valua, and if you __**really**__ wanted to go there...I'll buy your passage. But only if you have family waiting. Only if there are people who can take care of you. You're just a girl still, and you should stay a girl for a little while longer.'_

Clara had no other family that she knew of. There was nowhere else she could go. There was nobody else who cared about her. But Carol did, and that was the day she left Sailor's Island behind and joined up as a member of the crew aboard the _Iron Clad,_ a ship captained by Centime of the Blue Rogues. He taught her how to sail, how to fight, and in time, she became a Blue Rogue herself. But he never adopted her. He offered many times in the first year she was with them, and she refused him every time.

But when Carol asked to adopt her on her 13th birthday, Clara fell into the woman's arms with happy tears and said yes. She never forgot her real father and mother. But she was more than happy to let Carol and Centime be her step-parents.

* * *

_109 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_The Primrose, Captain's Cabin_

_Mid-Ocean_

She was known on the bounty boards as 'Calamity Clara' due to her ability to take any situation and make it three times worse. And usually more explosive. She commanded an all-female crew of brigandly Blue Rogues, and that was the kind of combination that started rumors. In her case, the story went that Clara was a dark mistress bristling with swords and pistols who could arm-wrestle a man into the table and then drink him under it. The story went on that her crew were a bunch of die-hard man-haters who had all but declared war not only on Valua, but men everywhere.

The stories were based on the preconceived notions of merchants and sailors and other pirates who weren't privy to the life stories and the gossip of the crew of the _Primrose,_ and as such were imagined from a wrong perspective. As Clara woke up in her colorful cabin, reclining in her own colorful bed with an ache between her legs that made her smile wider, she wondered what the gossip-mongers of Mid-Ocean would say if they could see how she preferred to live, what she was really like when she wasn't attacking Valuan outposts and light cruisers, or making runs for the black market. Hell, she couldn't even _use_ magic, and she wondered when the rumors about her being a skilled red moon mage had gotten started. Maybe one of the times she set off an impressive explosion, but _really,_ gunpowder explosions and Pyres spells were two different things.

Clara yawned as she stretched out, blinking to find her bed empty. She wondered where Gilder had gotten off to, but she wasn't worried like she had been _before._ As she got up, saw to her constitutional and slipped on her terrycloth dressing gown, it was at a relaxed pace.

_Before,_ for Clara, meant the time before she had taken the _Primrose_ and flown with the crew of the _Claudia _to lead a raid on the Grand Fortress's exterior so her Gilder could escape. _Before_ meant before the two girls that she had rescued found their man and her Gilder and then hijacked the Armada's newest and most powerful warship _and_ stole the crown prince _and_ blew a hole clean through the unbreakable fortress. _Before_ was the time before Vyse managed to convince Gilder to stop running. To give her a chance. To want what Vyse had, he'd told her as he held her close and she almost cried in relief as she realized that he was done running.

_Before_ meant the time when the _Primrose_ stalked the skies half of the time in pursuit of Gilder as Clara went after the man she wanted, and the _Claudia_ kept on running from her.

Clara and Gilder were done with _before._ Now, their ships flew side by side, their crews were slowly catching on that the game of cat and mouse had been turned into the start of a cooperative truce. The start of it was a journey to the northeast, to the Frontier Lands north of the ruins of Nasrad where Crescent Island waited for them. Gilder had been insistent that their first stop had to be in delivering two members of his crew, Brabham and Izmael, off at Crescent Island with enough supplies to last them until Vyse and Aika and Fina and the Prince and _whoever else they convinced to come with them_ would arrive on the _Delphinus_ to take stock of what would become their headquarters and home. They were making good time, especially since the bulk of the Valuan presence had retreated to reinforce the Grand Fortress.

There was a knock at her door, two sharp and heavy ones, and then it swung open to reveal Gilder, already dressed for the day, carrying a wicker basket with plates, covered food, mugs, and a sealed thermos. He paused for a bit and smiled before closing the door with his foot and walking over to the small table with its two chairs along the wall. "Good morning, milady." Gilder smugged, pulling Clara closer to him by her waist. She let him, and let her arms flop over his shoulders before coming up off of her heels to kiss him.

"You weren't in bed when I woke up."

"Went to get us breakfast." Her lover said, tipping his head to the side as he backed away from her and then held a chair out for her to sit down. Her heart thrilled a little as she did so, and he pushed her in before leaning down to leave a lingering kiss on the side of her neck that she _knew_ would leave a mark. Which was probably why he'd done it, the rest of her girls would go _wild_ with giggling once they saw it. When he sat down across from her, there was a flicker of worry in his eyes behind his pince-nez glasses. "You didn't think I would run, did you?"

She looked at him and her heart melted a little more. All the times he had run, and now, after his daring escape from the Grand Fortress in the company of Vyse and Aika and Fina, he was so different. Still the same caring, _very doting lover_ that he'd always been, but now with a sense of loyalty. A need to remain in her company. To convince her that he had changed.

Clara reached a hand across the table and took his, squeezing it gently. "Not for a second." She smiled, and knew that she had so much to thank Vyse and the girls for. Hopefully she would have the chance to meet them again and do so in person.

Breakfast was quiet and companionable and relaxed. Theirs was a romance renewed, but neither of them were taken to blazing displays of passion. Not anymore. Something quieter, longer-lasting, had settled into place over the past 36 hours. She found she was fine with it. She still had to get cleaned up, and they were both captains with crews that were relying on them.

"So." Gilder said, sipping the last of his second cup of tea and setting the mug aside. "I've been considering our next moves from here."

"Have you? Good. I've given it some thought as well. The Valuans will be reeling for a while after your daring escape." Clara pointed out. "This might be the best chance we'll get for some raiding further out from Valua; they'll be pulling in their reinforcements to watch the Grand Fortress while they're making repairs."

"It's an opportunity, but we need a goal." Gilder added. "The Valuans cracked how to make ships powerful enough to pass through sky rifts. That's a level of engineering I'd like to get on our side as well."

Clara laughed once and tilted her head to the side, feeling her red hair flow against her neck and settle back on the tops of her shoulders. "I would say that they'd be keeping that under lock and key inside of the Grand Fortress, but...what have you heard?"

"What makes you think I know something you don't, Clara?" Gilder inquired not quite so innocently.

She rolled her eyes and pushed her plate forward so she could set her elbows on the small table and rest her head in her hands. "Because you aren't a Blue Rogue like me. Your list of contacts may be more disreputable than mine, but you hear things I don't because of it."

Gilder shrugged, caught out. "True enough. Very well, you happen to be right."

"What was that?" She hummed.

"You were...oh, I see what you're trying to do." Gilder sighed, and she giggled. "Very funny, love. Yes, the Grand Fortress is where they had been doing a lot of ship refits to make them sky rift-worthy, but I've been thinking that they'll have to move some of their refits to other bases further out. Bases that might be more vulnerable to a coordinated attack from two ships."

Clara found herself agreeing with the logic, and with the plan. Rough as it was.

She leaned in over the table a little more. "I don't suppose you know which base or bases will be carrying the parts to upgrade their engines?"

"Not yet." Gilder said. "But. I think we could manage a little _research_ to figure it out."

Clara smiled at that. "Nice. Keep this up, and we'll make a Blue Rogue out of you yet, my handsome one."

Gilder leaned back in his chair, rocking it up off of its front legs a little. "You're still on that, eh?"

"You're already halfway there. Your crew's one of the most savory Air Pirate bands out there, and you've refused to fly the banner of the Black Pirates or use their tactics."

Gilder watched her carefully. He looked like he wanted to bite his lip, which was something he never did. He was _never_ indecisive. Or he hadn't been _Before._ "If I...If I didn't take the Oath...Would I still get to keep you?"

Clara froze at that, then blinked rapidly to keep her eyes clear. "Gilder. I've been yours for _years."_

He crumbled a little more at her confession, reached for one of her arms, and tugged her hand to him after she'd freed it from under her chin. Gilder turned it over and pressed a kiss to her palm.

"I'm sorry I took so long to realize it." He whispered.

"What's bothering you?" Clara asked, worried. "Why are you talking like this?"

"It's something Vyse said." Gilder explained hesitantly. "That one day, you would get tired of chasing after me. And he asked me if I could live with myself if you ever gave up and left me alone. If I...if I lost you." He looked down at his lap and shook his head. "I couldn't. I should have stopped running sooner. How many years have you wasted, waiting for me to get over myself? How can I ever make it up to you, give you those years back?"

Clara got up from her chair and moved around the table, then settled herself onto his lap and wrapped her arms around him. She leaned in close with watery eyes and kissed his nose. "You can't. But all that was _Before._ Just tell me that it's different now. That you're done running from this."

"I am. I'm yours, if you still want me." Gilder hoarsely confessed.

Moons, did she ever owe Vyse and his loves a thank you and so much more for what they'd done. They had opened Gilder's eyes and made him change his mind. Clara leaned in and kissed him deeply.

"I want you." She told him brokenly, sinking her face against his shoulder. "I want you." He held her tight after that as she kept repeating those three words, a prayer to the Moons.

* * *

_South Danel Strait, Enroute to the Frontier Lands_

_Valuan Courier Frigate _Redoubt

_Amidships, Boarding Action_

_110 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Clara had been 16 when she finally 'officially' joined the Blue Rogues as a member of Centime's crew, and she had been 21 when she first struck out on her own as captain of the newly christened _Primrose._ Only a month after she set out, she lost track of her step-parents and the _Iron Side,_ and at their next scheduled meet-up, she and her crew and her ship were alone. She tried to not let that worry her too much, especially since the Valuans would have crowed victory if they'd caught or killed 'Centime The Tinker' in combat. Still, not worrying and not _missing her family_ were two different things entirely. The _Primrose_ was a ship that sailed with a different goal entirely from most, because Clara had never forgotten the love her parents had for each other, the love and final words her mother had left her with. About finding someone to love with her whole heart and never letting them go. Her crew were all women that she'd scoured Mid-Ocean to find, women who were willing to fight against Valua for one reason or another, but who often also wanted to find love themselves. She had some women and girls on her ship who found it in each other, and while some might have found that disgusting, Clara was more open-minded than most in Mid-Ocean would be. She allowed it and let her girls be who they were, and just made sure that they were careful when they made port.

She was 22, with a year on the job as a Blue Rogue captain, when the _Primrose_ made port in Nasrad again for some much needed R and R and resupply. She was 22 when she met Gilder, and she spent the next five days being wooed by him, courted, and finally, loved.

For Clara, it was a thunderbolt through her. This man, this hard-fighting air pirate who refused to fly the Black Flag or the Blue was the man she loved with her whole heart. This was the man she wanted to spend her life with.

It was unfortunate he couldn't, or didn't want to see what was so painfully obvious to her. He spent the next five years running from her, when he wasn't teaming up with her for the bigger jobs he couldn't manage himself. And it had hurt some days, Clara remembered. But she could be persistent when she wanted to be, and for something that was worth it.

She was 27 now, and her Gilder was 32, and he was no less majestic and handsome than he'd been at 27 as he and their crews swung aboard the _Redoubt _in a boarding action so flawless that it seemed rehearsed. With the _Claudia_ on one side of the beleaguered ship with its ruined propellors and the _Primrose_ on the other, it had nowhere to run after the mooring ropes and claws were thrown over it.

"Come on girls, we can't let the men have _all_ the fun now, can we?!" Clara shouted, hiking up her skirts with one hand while she fired a pistol with the other, dispatching a Valuan trooper who had been running to the edge of the ship with a yellow-edged sword drawn and ready. A roar of high-pitched feminine screams answered her, and Clara grinned and jumped down from the rail onto the deck. Her eyes searched across the ship as she caught sight of Gilder, brandishing his dual moonstone-inlaid pistols with a fierce gleam in his eyes. He fired a warning shot that exploded with the detonation of a Pyri spell on impact to get the attention of the troopers nearby, and then bellowed out.

"All right, Valuans! Listen up! We're taking your surrenders now, if you care to live! This ship is now commandeered by Calamity Clara of the Blue Rogues, and Gilder!"

"Gilder?!" One Valuan sputtered as he seemed to finally recognize the dashing figure and blood-red and black duster that was Gilder's trademark as much as his pince-nez glasses and his pistols. The green parrot Willy flew down and perched on the man's shoulder and let out a squawk before parroting away.

"Awk! Gilder! Gilder!"

"Thanks for the moral support, Willy." Gilder told his parrot with a lazy eye roll.

"Gilder the Unfettered?" Another trooper said, even as the relatively sparse crew of the courier ship saw the odds stacked against them and finally started dropping their weapons in surrender.

Clara had forgotten that name of his, hadn't thought about it in forever. No. She hadn't _wanted_ to think about it, she corrected herself. Her Gilder had been a philanderer, a playboy that sailed the skies of Arcadia and loved women in every port, refusing to commit to any of them for reasons that were logical only to him.

It made her heart swell when Gilder's eyes searched for her, saw her, and how he flinched in guilt. "Just Gilder, if you please." He told the Valuan trooper.

Funny how a thing as simple as him casting off a nickname because of what it meant could make her heart swell so much.

Clara stepped forward, reloading her pistol as she went. "Now, then. As soon as we have your commanding officer's surrender, we can finish our business here in a civilized manner." She said brightly, brandishing a wide smile that made the Valuans she passed by shiver. It wasn't _her_ fault if they considered it predatory. Still, between her reputation and the fact that she had led a _boarding action_ in a frilly pink gown as though she were a parasol short of a leisurely afternoon stroll through a garden instead of high seas warfare, the ship's crew quickly fell in line. Even the captain, who tried to surrender his sword to Clara. She clucked her tongue once disapprovingly and then gestured towards Gilder.

"You can give it to him, dearie. You think I've got a place to put it?"

"What's this now?" Gilder said teasingly, as the captain grit his teeth and moved over to give Gilder his sword. The brash pirate drew out the steel and examined it in theatrical fashion before sliding it back into the scabbard. He set it on his swordbelt and smirked. "Already giving me presents, love?"

The men on his side of the captured ship chuckled under their breath, and the girls on her side giggled and tittered behind their hands. Clara set a hand at her waist and cocked her head at him.

"I gave you a sword, honey. The ship's _mine."_

"What, can't we share it?" Gilder pouted, and the Valuans who weren't wearing helmets were now bouncing their stares between the two captains in confusion.

"I didn't think you were a fan of sharing, Gilder."

"I'm warming up to the idea." He teased her.

"Hmph!" Clara went for a put-out look and turned her head away from him. "Well, if that's how you're going to be, then perhaps you could tell me what I get out of this."

Gilder sauntered over and pulled her in close to him, and she looked up into his eyes as they glimmered.

"Let me show you." He growled out, and dipped her back into a kiss that made her toes curl. Her girls all lost their minds screaming in joy, and even Gilder's men started hooting and catcalling. He pulled her back up and set her on her feet, and Clara wasn't ashamed to admit that she swooned and tilted back and forth a little before she regained her senses.

"Well." She said, flushed and happy and not really that embarrassed. "When you put it like that." And then their crews got to work getting the ship ready for capture.

As for the Valuans, they were loaded up onto their lifeboats, given enough provisions for a week, and directed to the nearest inhabited island where they could wait to be picked up and rescued. Without any of their weapons or armor, naturally.

The _Redoubt_ was dragged off by the _Primrose_ and the _Claudia_ with towlines, a prize of some value. But the real prize was all the courier messages and undelivered military postings down in the forward hold. They needed information, and now they had a ship full of it.

* * *

_The Claudia_

_South of the Frontier Lands, Enroute to Mid-Ocean_

_115 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

They'd made Crescent Island in good time flying in tandem, stopping off in Nasrad long enough to purchase extra supplies for Brabham and Izmael and to collect gossip before heading north. The island Gilder had found Vyse on was large and Clara had been able to see the promise of something special there. Brabham and Izmael, twice as old as most people's lifetimes, were even more ecstatic about the opportunities, and had taken their supplies and made camp with a wave as the ships sailed back off to the south. With Gilder's promise to Vyse seen to, the _Claudia_ and the _Primrose_ had business of their own to see to in Mid-Ocean, and they had a Valuan courier frigate to pick back up where they'd docked it in Nasrad.

"I think I've got something." Gilder said, lifting up one of the letters dumped out of their current mailbag. "They're probably coding the ship parts that get used, and the Valuans are smart enough to not keep a manifest codebook on hand for the courier ships. At least, the _Redoubt_ didn't have one. But, the base commanders still like to write in and complain."

Clara was sitting in front of the mirror in Gilder's cabin, calmly brushing her hair out as she got ready for bed. She made a soft hum of acknowledgement. "Let me guess. Someone slipped up and mentioned a codeword."

"Just so, milady." Gilder said. "You know Jormee Island?"

"Yes. Was an independent trading hub, smaller than Sailor's Island. It was annexed by Valua when we were children. Still does a lot of fishing, and there's a cannery there that Valua buys from at discount." Clara paused in her brushing. "They have a small resupply base there."

"Right." Gilder said. "Enough of a base so there's a token presence on the island to protect their 'investment', but not so large that it scares off other tourists and merchants. It seems that the base commander's been complaining about his shipment of 'Greenfruits' going missing, and that he has captains waiting on them." Gilder smiled and held up another letter. "And here's the receipt of the shipping order form sent out from Jormee Base, enroute to them from the Grand Fortress. Seems basic enough, but there are six 'Greenfruits' that are due to arrive at Jormee in about four days from now."

Clara had to laugh. "And somehow, we ended up attacking a courier ship carrying the base's delivery confirmation, and the base commander's letter complaining about how slow the delivery was going."

Gilder set the letters aside and came over to her, standing behind Clara and kneading her shoulders gently. "I suppose we're paying them a visit then."

"In four days." Clara sighed, leaning back into his hands. "Gives you plenty of time to show me what new tricks your fingers have picked up."

"You don't want a shoulder rubdown?" Gilder hummed.

"I do. For starters." Clara set her hairbrush down and closed her eyes.

* * *

*G*

_Jormee Naval Base_

_Jormee Island, Mid-Ocean_

_119 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The _Redoubt_ pulled into harbor, flying all the right signal flags for a ship in distress reporting damage and casualties. The base commander and his adjutant stepped out onto the docks to meet with the Empire's courier ship as it docked, and a pair of officers bedecked in rumpled uniforms and smudged armor were standing at the top of the ramp as the crew lowered it.

"Permission to disembark." The captain of the courier frigate said formally.

"Permission granted." The base commander said, and the two ranking officers of the _Redoubt_ started down the gangway. "Encountered trouble out there?"

"Yes, sir." The captain said wearily. "Met with pirates near a week ago. Got away from them, but we took some damage to our propellers that slowed us down. I know we're overdue."

"Damned pirates." The base commander scowled, spitting on the ground after. "Now that Nasr has fallen and their fleet's fled for the Frontier Lands, the Armada might actually be able to do something about them for a change. I take it you have messages we need to make receipt for?"

"Yes, sir." The captain's first officer cut in, surprising the base commander that it was a _woman_ addressing him. The crew of the _Redoubt_ knew why, of course. There were other women in the Armada, but they were fewer in number, composing ten or perhaps fifteen percent of the total enlisted. And unlike the conscriptions that the men of Valua were given, every woman who served volunteered for it. Or at least, that had been the way of things early in the days of the Empire, and there _was_ a woman Admiral, for crying out loud. "We have messages for other base personnel as well. If your adjutant would care to escort me, we can get our delivery signed off on."

"Would it be permissible for us to rotate our crew through shore leave while your mechanics make repairs on our vessel?" The _Redoubt's_ captain asked innocently.

"I don't see why not." The base commander shrugged. "Moons know you and your men deserve a little downtime after your close encounter. Oh, and long as you're here; the Armada is moving to refit all of its ships with new upgraded engines, ones powerful enough to cut through the sky rifts around Mid-Ocean. We _just_ got our shipment of replacement engine components in today. Active patrol ships and ones like your courier frigate have priority, so we may as well spare you the trouble of reporting in to another base later on and just do the work now. Since the Air Pirates you bumped into were considerate enough to require repairs anyhow. How did you fight them off, if I might ask? Your vessel isn't equipped for prolonged engagements."

"Lucky shot." The captain explained, a faint smile hidden behind his visored helmet coming through the tone of his voice. "They didn't have much for armor, and we landed a shell close to their magazine. They had bigger things to worry about than us after that."

There was a low chuckle that they all shared in on after that, and then everyone was moving; the _Redoubt's_ vice captain for the mail room of the vessel with the base adjutant in tow, the base commander back to his office with a promise that the captain would join him for a drink in under fifteen minutes, and the captain for the _Redoubt_ to pass the word of shore leave in shifts to his men and share the plans for their repairs and the engine refit.

The _Redoubt_ was a known quantity, even if it had arrived late, and gossip of the reason for its absence would be passed around the base soon enough. For the moment, the base personnel paid the ship no mind and kept to their other concerns after the base commander and his adjutant met with the courier vessel's commanding officers without incident.

It was on such dismissals of notice that critical details were missed, like the sight of a brightly colored parrot flying in from far away and landing in the window of the captain's windowsill, where the captain removed his helmet with a sigh and smiled at the bird.

"Took your sweet time getting here, Willy. Little too much birdseed this morning?"

"Awk!" Willy squawked in protest, flapping his wings once to settle his feathers. "No sleeping with the women around. Awk!"

"Well, there's sleeping and then there's _sleeping_ as you well know…" Gilder chuckled, quickly scribbling a note and curling it up tightly before slipping it into the message case strapped to the leg of his pet. "There you go, Willy. Take that back to the _Claudia._ It's got specific instructions, but you be sure to tell them; we're hitting this place tonight."

"Awk! Hit it tonight! Hit it tonight!" Willy parroted back at him, and Gilder grinned, offering the bird a cracker for its efforts before it flapped back out the way it had come.

Gilder sighed, feeling a pang of worry for Clara as she went about the tougher job of playing the part of an officer of the Valuan Armada delivering messages. She hadn't been worried about the job, though, he recalled.

No, her primary concern was how Moons-awful ugly the Valuan uniform looked, and how she planned on _burning it_ the moment she didn't have to wear it any longer.

* * *

*C*

_Jormee Naval Base_

_Evening_

Clara wondered what the soldiers on the base first thought when the first explosions tore through the compound, taking the searchlights and the base armory out in suitably explosive fashion. The ones who were awake, that was. The ones who had been sleeping, she could make a rational guess at, based on the noises drifting out of the barracks. Blind panic, mostly.

For the ones who were awake, it must have seemed like the world was ending. No sooner had their chief means of scouting for enemies in the darkness, and the weapons stores for dealing with close quarters combatants been destroyed than two ships of distinctive shape and coloring flew in from behind a passing cloudbank. They burst out of it and flew gleaming in the starlight as the cannons opened up with a full broadside, knocking at the outer defenses and meager cannonworks. Everyone who had been on duty had been running _towards the explosions inside of the base_ when the _Claudia_ and the _Primrose_ opened fire, and before they could run back to engage the outer threat, all of their batteries were smoking ruins.

The base commander of Jormee had little choice but to hoist the white flag of surrender after that, especially since the two ships kept circling as they sent down landing boats full of armed pirates. That, to the defenders caught completely off-guard and with their proverbial pants down was expected.

What wasn't expected was how the captain and vice captain of the _Redoubt_ came strolling off the deck of their parked ship still in the process of being converted bedecked not in their Valuan uniforms, but in a black and red duster longcoat and a _frilly dark pink and white dress_ bearing pistols. Well. Gilder was carrying his pistols. Clara was content to walk without any visible weapons, though she had two holdout revolvers hidden up the sleeves of her gown and a third tucked inside of the parasol she used as a cane as she walked. She couldn't help the smile of triumph as they strolled past the stunned Valuans who were quickly being disarmed and trussed up by the attacking pirates and the crew of the _Redoubt_ who were now revealed to be pirates as well. For Clara, there was great enjoyment to be had in the moment of realization when the base commander realized just how greatly he'd been had...and who exactly had played him and everyone in his command for a sucker.

"Hello, everyone, and thank you for coming out tonight." Clara started in her most cheerful voice. "I'm Calamity Clara of the Blue Rogues, this tall drink of water beside me is Just Plain Gilder, and this?" She spun her parasol up and gestured around them in a wide circle. "This, dear Valuans, is a _raid."_ Her girls and his men all chuckled at her words, while the Valuans either seethed in silence behind their helmets or glared openly at them. "Now, I don't know about the rest of you but I absolutely _hate_ inflicting more injury and death than I absolutely have to, so if you'll all just cooperate with us, we'll be taking a few things from you and then we'll be on our way."

One Valuan who hadn't yet had his weapon taken from him snarled and tried to rush her, and Gilder's twin pistols were up and cocked and pointed at the man in an instant. They gleamed as he fed his spiritual energy into his pistol's moonstone inlay, and then he was firing in an unending volley of shots that used up the bullets in the gun, and then condensed spiritual energy when the ammunition ran out.

"Dance for me!" Gilder hissed, putting his shots at the man's feet and forcing him back in a skittering stumble that had the headstrong trooper yelping aloud. The pirates of the _Claudia_ laughed at the stunt, and the ferocity and skill on display seemed to cow the rest. Clara just sighed and set a hand to her hip as the Valuan finally dropped his weapon and fell back in line, where Gilder's men quickly trussed the fellow up.

"Thank you, Gilder. Very thoughtful of you." Clara said. "But I could have handled him."

"And get that perfect dress of yours dirty?" Gilder shot back innocently, which got a round of fresh giggles from the girls of the _Claudia_ as they swooned a little under the effect of his roguish charm. "Never."

"You won't get away with this." The base commander snapped at her. "The Empire will grind you all into the grave for this insult."

"Oh, I don't doubt that there will be some hell to pay when this blows over." Clara said airily, walking over to the man. The Valuan officer held himself rigid, wanting to do something but hesitating with Gilder standing nearby, pistols smoking and still held up in a ready position. "But that's for another day. And I doubt very much that we'll be the ones paying it." Clara patted him gently on the cheek with her gloved hand, and her smile took on a predatory gleam that made the man shiver. "Valua has been bullying its way around Mid-Ocean for 20 years. It's about time they learned that the people of Arcadia aren't going to stand for it." She stepped back and raised her voice so all the gathered could hear her. "There's a new storm coming, and it's going to be more than Valua can handle. The Blue Rogues are here, and this is just the beginning!"

A roar rose up around them from the gathered Blue Rogues and air pirates of their two ships, and Clara found herself flushed with the energy of the moment. She found herself slipping back into Gilder's embrace as her lover and her dearest companion wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her snugly against his side.

"I didn't think that you Blue Rogues knew how to have this much fun." He said, a laugh just under his grin.

"Baby?" Clara hummed, cradling her head under his chin and smirking at the furious surrendered Valuans. "You haven't seen _anything_ yet."

* * *

_Mid-Ocean_

_Sailor's Isle_

_122 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

"I get the feeling that we're following in Vyse's footsteps." Gilder mused, looking around inside the tavern across the road from the Sailor's Guild with a gimlet eye. "Seems a little quieter in here."

"They're talking about him." Clara hummed, sewing a monogrammed handkerchief while they waited for their meals to arrive. The _Claudia_ and the _Primrose_ had docked at Sailor's Island only an hour before, and the rumors hadn't stopped buzzing about Vyse, who now carried a 2 star rank on the bounty board to the one held by herself, Gilder, and Dyne. "Apparently, he picked up some crewmates while they stopped here for supplies a few days ago."

"Including the best cook on the island." Gilder said, looking up to the front counter where the absent Polly's daughter, Anna, was cheerfully pouring mugs of ale. "How did the kid manage to get _her_ to come with him?"

"Supposedly, they're going to go searching for her husband while they're gallivanting about." Clara told him. "At least, that's what Anne told me when I asked where her mother was."

"Did she know who else Vyse ended up taking with him from here?"

"A young boy who liked to spend his time in the weapons shop dreaming about exploring for treasures, and Lone Wolf Lawrence."

Gilder sat up a little straighter. "Lawrence? That mercenary? How did...No. If I ask that about every person who joins up with him, we're never going to get anything done here." He sank his head into a hand and sighed. "That kid is unbelievable."

"He _is_ the son of Dyne of the Blue Storm." Clara giggled. "Centime never had a bad thing to say about his father, and from what I've seen and heard of him, especially from his ladies, he burns with the same purpose and charisma."

"He's going to be something else, that kid." Gilder chuckled, finally smiling again.

"More, love." Clara said tenderly. "Vyse is going to be the best of us." She finished slipping her needle through the cloth kept under tension from the wooden hoop and turned it around for Gilder to look at. "What do you think?"

Gilder blinked at it. "You're putting my name on it."

"Yes."

"...There's a heart around it."

"Yes."

"Why?" Gilder stared at her, and Clara smiled, getting back to work.

"Because you are _always_ in my heart, Gilly."

Gilder quickly swiveled his head around with wide eyes, then made a face. _"Please_ don't say that name in mixed company, I don't want it catching on."

"Afraid that people won't be as terrified of you if they find out that you're my kept man?" Clara asked, and Gilder paused right as he opened his mouth. She raised an eyebrow, and Gilder slumped back into his seat.

"Unfair. Trick question, Clara."

"They sometimes are." She chuckled. "But you're smart enough to recognize the trap now, at least."

"It is good work, though." Gilder admitted, glad to be past the awkwardness. "You know, sometimes I forget how good of a seamstress you are. That you're a _dressmaker_ on top of everything else you are."

"We wear many hats." Clara shrugged. "Whatever the day requires. My stepfather was a ship's engineer before he became a captain in his own right, and remains a mechanic in his heart as well as being a father and a leader and a guardian. Besides, you have a talent of your own besides piracy. A wonderful talent." She smiled. "One I hope that you don't give up on just because we're together."

"I have given the matter some thought." Gilder rumbled, sizing her up. "But I'm not sure if you'd be willing."

The _suggestion_ in his voice sent fresh butterflies in her stomach, and Clara set down her embroidering to reach for her wineglass. When her mouth and throat weren't as dry as they had suddenly become and the fluttering in her belly eased off a little, she looked across the table into his dark eyes.

"I'm listening."

"I want to paint you." Gilder said, setting his free hand on the table and stretching it halfway across. "A painting just for you and me."

Clara swallowed again, made dizzy by the low heat he spoke with. "And what would I be doing in this painting?" She asked him, reaching her own hand over towards his until just the hint of open space separated their hands.

He crossed the gap and interlaced their fingers, his palm down and hers palm up, and kept gazing into her eyes. "Lying in repose." Gilder said huskily. "Beckoning with your eyes, one arm over your head and the other sliding down your body."

Neither one of them spoke of what she might conceivably be wearing in this hypothetical portrait. There was no need to, she knew his intent clearly.

_He wanted her wearing nothing._

"Perhaps." Clara whispered, not daring to blink, barely daring to breathe. "For your eyes only." He nodded once, and a sudden presence beside them made them both jerk apart as platters of fresh bread, cut fruit, and seasoned meat were placed down before them.

Anne smirked as she looked at the two pirate captains, tilting her body slightly to look at Clara in profile. "Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but the meal's up. Anything else I can get you two? Or should I assume that what you two really want isn't on the menu?"

Gilder blushed, and Clara giggled into her hand. "Anne, _really._ What would your mother say if she heard you talking so freely?"

"Mum's heard plenty more ribald things in her time." The young woman sniffed. "Besides, she trusts me to run this place while she's gone looking for my father in the Dark Rift."

The mention of that grim landmark, considered the end of the world, did much to quash the stirrings Gilder evoked in her.

"You didn't say your father was lost in the Dark Rift." Clara began slowly.

"And you didn't ask." Anne countered. "But yes. That's why mom went with them. Because my dad was lost someplace nobody's tried to go back to since then, and now Vyse _is."_

Clara looked over to Gilder, and in a silent look, the fear they both had for Vyse and Aika and Fina passed between them. But then, Gilder relaxed and smiled. Clara didn't understand why, but she had learned to trust his reactions. He'd been worried for all of three seconds, and then…

And then, suddenly, he wasn't. Vyse was sailing for the Dark Rift. Gilder wasn't concerned.

So Clara wouldn't be either.

"You never met him, did you?" Clara asked her carefully. Anne shook her head.

"No. Never did. I was born while he was deployed, and then he never came home. But mom never stopped loving him." The woman paused at that. "You know Vyse."

"Yes." Gilder and Clara both spoke at the same time. Anne fidgeted a little.

"Do...do you think he'll take care of her?" She asked hesitantly.

"Yes." Gilder nodded, firm and solid. "That man cares more than most captains do. He looks out for his own."

The new owner of the tavern bit her lip and looked away. "Do you think that my mom is going to find my father if she sails with him?"

Clara watched as Gilder closed his eyes and thought about it, considering his words.

"I have watched him do the impossible." Gilder finally said. "He convinced the _Prince of the Empire_ to turn his back on his own people to help us escape. He's fought monsters and admirals and sailed where nobody ever dared before." He cracked his eyes open, adjusted his glasses, and nodded once at Anne. "If there's anyone who would stand a chance of helping your mother find your father, dead or alive after 20 years, it's Vyse."

"He is a Blue Rogue, dear." Clara added helpfully. "Blue Rogues never back down from a greater challenge. And we never leave anybody behind. Have hope. And be strong until then."

"Until when?" Anne asked hoarsely.

"Until he returns." Clara reassured her.

* * *

_The Primrose_

_South Danel Strait, Mid-Ocean Entrance_

_124 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Clara knew her girls very well; they wore their hearts on their sleeves just like she did, and they all looked out for each other. None of them ever took shore leave alone, a safety precaution that only aided the legends about Calamity Clara and her crew of man-eating women. They looked out for each other, they shared their problems, they talked things over, and Clara _never_ let a problem between two members of the crew fester. The gossip aboard the _Primrose_ only lasted until it reached someone who decided to do something about it. The result was a bond of sisterhood that had proven to be unbreakable, a group of women of Clara's age and younger who had each other's backs. Always.

The downside of that unity was that when something was up that her girls didn't want her knowing about, Clara's usual method of ferreting the truth out of them was woefully inadequate. Like today, when she was conferring with her first officer about the course that the _Primrose_ and the _Claudia _and the _Redoubt_ flown between them were setting towards the Frontier Lands. The ships were bursting with stolen supplies and Crescent Island was waiting for them, and they were flying slower than usual.

"Captain, please. I know how to handle this." Hortensia reassured her again. "We're flying slower, but we have crews stationed and on alert for pirate activity, and we _did_ hear that report that a large Valuan battleship flying alone had a skirmish with Baltor the Black-Bearded days ago. Any other Black Pirates will likely be laying low, and even if they aren't, none of them will be stupid enough to go up against a small fleet of our three ships." She tapped her hand against the navigation table and smirked. "Now shoo already. You have to take command of the _Redoubt_ for today, which means that you need to leave _here."_

And then the girls on the bridge all giggled and looked anywhere but in her general direction. Clara tried to give them a _look_ that they all ignored, and had to settle for an exasperated sigh.

"You're all up to something and I don't know what it is, and I don't like it. Can you at least promise me it's nothing that will lead to a mess that I have to clean up later?"

They all started giggling even harder, with one or two of them outright snorting into their hands to keep from collapsing into rolling laughter.

"Um." Hortensia was biting the inside of her cheek, hard, and failing to hide her grin. "It'll be a good mess?" She promised carefully.

Clara rolled her eyes. "I swear, you girls…" She threw her hands up in the air and huffed. "Fine! I can see that I'm not wanted." With one last wave to her girls, Clara flounced off to make the crossing to the _Redoubt_, which was stuffed with even more supplies than either of their primary ships. Tied to the _Claudia _and the _Primrose,_ it didn't need much of a crew, so they had been rotating sailors over it primarily to help keep the ship on course and the guidelines between the three vessels intact.

When Clara stepped onto the bridge of the _Redoubt_, she wasn't surprised in the least to see a skeleton crew of men from the _Claudia_ already on station and keeping an eye on things. They turned and gave her a respectful nod, and Clara smiled back. For all that his crew had been willing to support Gilder in his philandering ways Before, they were slowly beginning to adapt to the new state of being that was her and their captain staying together as a couple.

"Ma'am." The officer of the deck said. "Your presence is requested down in the captain's cabin."

Clara frowned. "Unusual. Why? Is something wrong?"

"There's an issue that requires a command decision. Captain Gilder elected to defer the choice to you."

"Hm." Clara breathed out slowly. "Very well. How are things here?"

The boatswain shrugged. "We'll manage the ship in your absence, ma'am. How do you feel about skyfish casserole for dinner?"

"Canned?" Clara asked, managing not to sigh when the man nodded. "It's not ideal, but it'll do. Thank you. I'll see you in a bit."

The boatswain's mouth twitched in the start of a smile that he suppressed, and Clara immediately wondered why. "As you say, ma'am."

Great. Now even _Gilder's_ crew were keeping secrets. She would have to have a talk with him later about it.

"Carry on then, boatswain." Clara said, and made for the captain's cabin. She found the door unlocked as she stepped inside, and frowned for a moment as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Someone had hung thick curtains over the windows of the largest cabin on the ship, and only the light of about a dozen candles strewn about gave the room any glow at all.

She came to a stop when she saw that the captain's bunk had been removed and replaced with a larger one, resplendent in soft blue bedsheets with a thick white and red comforter and more pillows than a bed had a right to. And sitting directly opposite from it, with an easel already erected with a canvas on it was Gilder, dressed in a red and black satin robe and preparing a palette of paints.

As the door swung shut behind Clara, Gilder looked over to her with those dark eyes of his and smirked at her. _Smirked._

"Welcome aboard, my love." Gilder greeted her softly. "You're right on time."

Her heart picked up speed and thumped hard in her chest, and Clara stared between the bed and him and his blank canvas. "You...You set this up?"

"Your girls helped." Gilder's smirk eased into a warmer smile. "I had to bribe them a little first, though. It may be a while before they completely forgive me for how much of an ass I was to you over the years." He inclined his head at her. "Do you remember a conversation we had recently?"

"...Yes." Clara swallowed. "You want to paint me."

He blinked a few times rapidly, and the suave charisma of his faded. "If you still wish it. We don't have to. I won't force you into doing this."

"This will just be for the two of us." She said, seeking clarification. "Nobody will see this picture but us."

"It will be a gift to you." Gilder replied. "Something I never did for any other woman I ever knew. Because I never let any other woman get this close to me. You can burn it after I'm done if you want, or you can hang it aboard your ship. Or you can hide it away where only you can find it. Or maybe some day you'll want to share it with someone else." He lifted his shoulders and then dropped them slowly. "I'm good at two things, Clara. Being an air pirate and making art. I'm trying to be good at a third."

"What's the third thing?" She wondered aloud, her head dizzy as she saw him lean forward and caught a glimpse of bare skin underneath his robe.

"Loving you the way you deserve to be loved." Gilder told her.

All of Clara's worries disappeared in an instant after that. She smiled and locked the door behind her, then sauntered over to the bed, slowly tugging her gloves off.

"Then perhaps you can help me get out of this dress." She suggested to him. "Because I want you to paint me like one of your Nasrian girls."

He set the palette of paint off to the side and stood up, moving to stand in front of her. His strong hands went for the buttons along the front of her dress, but his eyes looked only to hers as the heat built up between them in the darkness of a cabin that their crews had prepared without her knowledge.

"As you wish." He growled out, undoing the lace ribbon tied in a bow just below her throat.

* * *

_Crescent Island_

_129 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

"Wow." Brabham wheezed as Clara disembarked from the _Primrose,_ walking hand in hand with Gilder as they descended down the ramp onto solid land. The old engineer who'd volunteered to stay behind on the island with Izmael stroked his beard as he sized up his former captain and Clara. "You two are looking cozy these days."

"Good to see you too, you old coot." Gilder grinned. "Vyse been by yet?"

"Oh, yeah." Brabham chuckled, gesturing out behind him to where his shorter, stouter compatriot Izmael was hard at work pounding nails into wooden boards for house frames. "You just missed him, they sailed out yesterday and headed north. That ship of his is a _dream_ to work on. If I didn't have Aika and that Lapen kid helping me out though, it would've taken me forev…"

"Wait, wait wait." Gilder let go of Clara's arm and held up a hand. "Lapen? As in _Loose Cannon Lapen?_ He's on the crew?" Clara was just as stunned as her lover was, but for a different reason. Lapen had been another adopted orphan that Centime had picked up a year or two after she'd been brought into the fold, and while the kid was a genius with machines, he'd always been a hothead, dismissive of Centime's care and comfort. The last that Clara had heard of him before Centime went missing was that he'd run off to make a name for himself, and she'd felt no need to seek him out and try to get him to straighten up. He'd never sought her out either.

Brabham nodded to Gilder's question. "Yup. They've got him working down in engineering. He was still patching up holes in the deck armor when they pulled in. Good with a wrench, but a hothead. It'll work against him if he's not careful."

Gilder looked over to Clara, and she ended up shrugging in return. "His temper was always his biggest flaw." Gilder gave her a look, and she resolved herself to explaining her _complicated surrogate family _to him in excruciating detail later. "Anyhow. We were hoping you'd be able to help us out."

"Ah, what have you done to the poor girl now, Gilder?" Brabham groaned, turning his sharp eyes up towards the _Claudia_ with a visible wince. "You have to treat your women better."

Clara found herself giggling in spite of herself. "Yes, Gilder, you _really do_ need to treat your women better."

"Now I'm catching it from all sides." Gilder muttered softly before raising his voice. "Brabham. Our ships are _fine,_ we haven't taken any damage. But we do have our hands on some new engine components taken straight from a Valuan fortress. They're planning on upgrading all their ships to make them capable of blazing through sky rifts now that the technology's been proven. I'm keen on getting our own ships up to snuff before they can roll out the upgrades Armada-wide. Can you handle it?"

"Gah, ask for a moon, why don't you?" Brabham groaned. "You'd better be helping me out with it, I'm old, damnit! I can't do it all myself anymore!"

"Relax, old man." Gilder cheered him up. "That's why we're here. You take whoever you need from the crew, and I'm sure Clara has a few sailors on hers who know their way around an engine as well. Whoever you don't need to get our ships refitted, we'll send to Izmael to help get this island up and running. And the best part?" He turned and gestured to the _Redoubt,_ floating to the side of their flagships. "We even brought you a ship of your own for when you need to sail out for more supplies or you just get bored. That engine's already been replaced with a sky rift engine, courtesy of the Valuans."

"There's a story there and I'm too old and too grouchy to care." Brabham said laconically, waving a hand over his head of thinning blond hair. "Fine, fine. We'll get your engines put in. But it'll take a while, even with help. Figg'rin out new machines takes me a while, even if I did get to give the ones on the _Delphinus_ a long once-over before it took off."

"It's fine, Brabham." Clara reassured the old man. "I think we could use a rest anyways. And now that we're here on Crescent Island and can lend you a hand for a while, you and Izmael might actually get this island looking decent by the time Vyse gets back from wherever he was headed."

"If only people knew." Gilder hummed cheerfully as Brabham sauntered away to start yelling at his crew and issuing orders.

"Knew what?" Clara blinked, wondering what had him so amused as he looked at her.

"Calamity Clara." Gilder explained, never breaking his stride. "A warrior woman who leaves disasters in her wake and haunts men's nightmares. And for all your daring, there's this side of you that few other people get to see. That there's a warm and caring woman behind the Blue Rogue who makes her own dresses, dreamed of romance, and won the heart of a miserable pirate like me."

"Are you trying to butter me up or make me feel bad for falling in love with you?" Clara asked him, amused and feigning insult.

"Neither." Gilder said, taking her hand and squeezing it. "I just find it amusing that for someone with your reputation, there's always another side to you. Like right now. You shake the skies with the cry of the Blue Rogues, and yet you look forward to peace and quiet."

She leaned into his side. "The fighting can't last forever. If Valua fell apart tomorrow, and there was peace, what would you do?"

"Same thing I do now, I suppose." Gilder hummed. "Go after the jackasses who think they run the world."

"If you weren't a pirate, Gilder."

"Oh." He thought about it. "You know? I don't think I've ever thought about that before." He shifted his stance and squeezed her hand. "What about you?"

Clara had thought about it. A lot. And more times than not, she ended up dreaming about how happy her parents had been, sailing around Arcadia, her mother making dresses and her father the captain of his own merchant vessel.

So she leaned into him and let him brace the weight of her as she looked over an island that was slowly being converted into something more than a landmark with a mountain jutting up above it; an island that was being turned into a home.

"I think about it all the time." She whispered to him. "I could learn to love peace and quiet."

Gilder kissed the side of her forehead. "I suppose we could stay here a few days, give you some then."

It was a good plan, and Clara loved the time that they spent on building something, instead of tearing things down. She loved the relaxation of it.

Relaxation that lasted up until what was left of the Nasrian Home Fleet showed up on their doorstep, at Vyse's invitation.

* * *

*G*

_The North Danel Strait_

_137 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Finding out that Vyse had ended up saving Admiral Bast Komullah and the remainder of the Nasrian Home Fleet from complete destruction at the hands of a Valuan task force hadn't been all that surprising to Gilder. He'd traveled with the kid, heard the stories of his adventures from his own mouth. He'd been there with him when they broke out of the Grand Fortress in what had been Vyse's _Second_ breakout from that walled compound.

Finding out that Vyse had then turned around and offered the Nasrians temporary safe harbor for them to effect ship repairs in exchange for help in building Crescent Island into a base to be proud of, however, that had left him stunned for a good hour. The kid really did have a power to make people change. Mercenaries and those on the bounty board were turned into crewmembers. Proud defenders in search of vengeance and blood, like Khazim, instead found purpose not in an endless grudge, but in a mission to cripple their enemy's ambitions from afar. The Nasrians had never really _approved_ of the Blue Rogues before, Clara had gently informed him after Komullah had swept the two captains up in a bear hug and congratulated the Blue Rogues on 'raising such a fine young warrior.' It had always been a matter of _tolerating_ the Blue Rogues when the Nasultan had been in power, because they didn't go after Nasrian merchant ships, only Valuan ones.

Now with the Nasultan dead and Nasrad's military on the run, Komullah had all but thrown the doors wide open for the Blue Rogues to sail openly in Nasrian skies. Gilder found himself almost asking Clara to administer the Oath to him after that, but he held back. It would keep. In time, they would be going after Valua hard, but for the moment, there was a different matter to focus on.

Namely, testing out the new and improved engines installed on the _Claudia_ and the _Primrose_ by passing through the closest sky rift, and then making their way to the recently reported land of Ixa'taka to find Centime and offer him the same sky rift engine gear.

Funny how both of those objectives had led them to the North Danel Strait, a shifting vortex of winds that had wrecked more ships than could be counted. Or perhaps it was poetic justice. Valua had invaded Nasr through the North Danel Strait in a surprise attack that Vyse had _tried_ to warn the Valuan authorities about, but been handily ignored and dismissed.

Gilder liked the thought of 'invading' Valuan airspace in the same way.

He and Clara had been inseparable, taking turns staying on each other's ships on alternating nights, but for this crossing neither of them had been willing to leave the fate of their ship or their crew up to chance.

Gilder stood on the bridge of his ship, and he knew that if he were to break out his telescope and look over to the _Primrose_ he would see his dear Clara on hers. He almost did, until his first officer cleared his throat.

"Sir," Clyde said. "All stations report ready. The full engineering team is on standby in the engine room and are reporting nominal readings. We're as ready as we're going to be."

"Are we?" Gilder asked, unfolding his arms as he stared at the thick curtain of winds. Powerful updrafts and downdrafts were the trademark of skyrifts, the walls between the domains that crushed the hopes and ambitions of kingdoms and empires. Or they had, anyways.

They were living in a new world now, with Vyse and his merry band of Rogues, mercenaries and misfits apparently on a whirlwind tour of Mid-Ocean before turning for the Dark Rift and the edge of the world. The North Danel Strait was equally deadly, if less mysterious.

"Any signal from the _Primrose?"_ Gilder asked his first mate. Clyde nodded.

"They'll follow your lead, captain." Clyde told him. _"She_ will follow your lead."

"That'll be a change of pace." Gilder smiled, and his crew chuckled a bit. He let the small taste of humor roll over him for a little longer, then rolled his shoulders and nodded. "All right, let's get flying. We're wasting daylight, and there's no way I want to do this when we can't see."

They started ahead and slipped into the raging current, and instantly the ship was shuddering around them. Gilder braced himself on a rail and barked out orders, and the helmsman quickly shifted the controls to follow them.

Any sailor knew about updrafts and downdrafts; storms and changes in temperature would often bring them about. The shift from the hotter climes of Nasr to the more temperate bands of the rest of Mid-Ocean often caught the unwary by surprise in how their ships would suddenly plummet a lunaleague or shoot up just as high. The sky rifts of the North Danel Strait didn't play by the same rules. They were tossed about with almost no discernible pattern on the interior, and there were only two constants as moisture collected on the glass of the viewports; going in they'd dipped down, and coming out on the other side they'd been shoved skyward.

They hung in the center of the strait, with one wall of wind behind them and the other side blazing ahead of them in the distance. And they were low enough that Gilder decided to crack open a porthole window and peer below, to see how close they'd come to the verge of the Lower Sky where moonstone engines and altitude compressors gave out.

It wasn't the Lower Sky that commanded his attention, however. It was a craggy outcropping of land at the ragged edge of the border between the Central and Lower Skies at the center of the strait, and an untold number of shipwrecks that were littered over its surface. From the iron construction of modern Valuan warships to the wooden-hulled vessels flown by most others, the graveyard spoke of untold suffering and loss.

And those were merely the wrecks that had been fortunate enough to crash in open view. Gilder shivered to think of how many more had crashed into the abyss, lost forever.

"Right." Gilder said, closing the window back up tight and clearing his throat. "Get us to a proper altitude, and then prepare the signal lamp. We need to get a message to Clara about making it through the other side. How did the new engine hold up?"

"Engine held up fine, sir." The helmsman answered him with a grimace. "The fault's mine; I didn't know what to expect. We should have an easier time on the outbound journey, now that I know what a sky rift feels like."

Gilder nodded, finding himself thirsting for a stiff drink. Clyde looked at him knowingly.

"How do you suppose Vyse handled these sky rifts?"

"In his ship?" Gilder thought about it. "I don't think he would have even noticed the turbulence."

True to the helmsman's prediction, the second leg of their trip through the North Danel Strait proved to be much easier than the first part had been. Their ships adjusted their altitude to take advantage of the shifting updrafts and downbursts, and they fought their way through the storm on engines powerful enough to blaze through the currents. It made for an exhausting, terrifying, exhilarating day that had Gilder smiling.

His smile only lasted until Clara spent the night in his bed. After some very soft cuddling while he swaddled her in magic-warmed blankets to help with her monthly cramps, she told him that she wanted to do some more traveling to reconnect with some other Blue Rogues that she knew. It seemed a good idea, as it was a perfect time to rally the forces, and Gilder had thought she meant Dyne. Then she told him flat out that they were going to sail to Ixa'taka via the North Ocean after crossing the sky rift that separated it from Mid-Ocean to go spend some time with Centime and his wife Carol.

His good mood crashed hard at the realization that she wanted to take him to _meet her step-parents._

* * *

*C*

_The Continent of Ixa'taka_

_150 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Of course, the problem with going looking for Centime and his wife Carol and the myriad children that Gilder recalled Vyse speaking about was that neither of them really had a good idea about where to go looking. The point was rendered moot when they caught sight of unnatural gunsmoke rising in the distance from the forest canopy of the continent close to a large river, and the sight of a convoy of lightly armed Valuan ships and scouting destroyers jutting up from the terrain.

Clara's hand tightened on his arm as they stood on the deck of the _Primrose,_ and she hissed. "I thought that Vyse had cleared them all out."

"The main presence, sure. But how long's it been since then?" Gilder asked her. "No, those are scout ships testing the waters. And from the looks of it, they're raising hell down there."

"In my stepfather's own backyard?" Clara said darkly. "Not while I can help it." She let go of his arm and smiled. "Gather five of your best men in close combat, I'll get five of my girls. We head down to deal with their troops on the ground while our ships are pounding theirs to burning wrecks."

The climate of Ixa'taka was unlike any that Clara had dealt with before. She'd faced skies full of rain and the hot, dry air of Nasr, the more temperate band of the Frontier Lands and the staticky feel that came from the stormclouds which drifted away from Valua. None of it compared to the feeling of warm, wet, _stifling_ atmosphere that she got in Ixa'taka. Flying through its skies after passing through the remains of a massive iron net that had been torn clean through she'd felt it, but at least there she had the flowing currents of being on a ship on the move to rely on.

She knew how to fight in a dress; her love of high-ankled boots helped a lot in that regard, and the extra fabric she used to hide not only pistols but throwing knives and daggers as well. It was a ruse as much as it was a fashion choice for her to make her enemies see her as a helpless woman and then immediately regret it. But all of that fighting had been done in environments where her sweat was instantly wicked away in a hot dry wind or developed much slower in cooler air. She had respite from none of it now, and her petticoat felt plastered to her body. The air had a hazy feel to it from moisture that never quite settled on the ground, and it was all slowing her down. At least _her_ clothes breathed; she wasn't sure how Gilder managed in that thick leather duster of his as they led the charge against a squad of Valuans caught red-handed in the act of trying to shove the native people into cages. At least they had been trying; a downed ship of obviously native construction had been lying in a crumpled heap nearby, and when Clara and Gilder and company had come charging in, they'd found a trio of three young women, younger even than Aika and Fina, fighting bravely to hold back the invaders and keep them from taking off again.

The _Claudia_ and the _Primrose_ opening up on the landed Valuan ships from above had quickly settled _that_ problem, and turned it into a ground engagement.

For better or worse, Clara thought forlornly. Then she drove the thought from her mind and let out a shout, firing her next pistol at the Valuan spellmage standing guard by the cages she and her girls were running towards. The shot clipped him, but didn't take him down, and the soldier raised up a focusing stave and took aim at them, glowing with yellow light.

An _Electri_ spell. Or worse.

"Scatter!" Clara shouted, and her squad split apart, denying the mage the chance to strike multiple targets in a line. Her girls reacted much quicker than she could in a matted down dress, and though she dodged the bulk of the terrifying blast (Electrum, it was an Electrum spell) it still had a powerful enough charge to catch her in the side, and send her collapsing to the ground spasming in pain. It was terrifying in a way that only yellow magic could be. Even the power of the red moon only burned. Yellow magic made your body rebel against itself, and it was doing so again. As her head spun from the aftershocks, she groaned and unclenched her jaw, glad that she hadn't bitten her tongue off.

The mage advanced on her, still crackling with power. "You picked the wrong time to show up, pirate." He growled, and leveled his staff down at her for a perfect point blank shot.

A different shot ended up blowing a hole through the armored chestplate he wore and knocking the spellmage backwards, dead before he hit the ground. Clara finally shook off the lingering effects of the debilitating electrocution and pushed herself over onto her back, squinting up through the sunlight filtering down through the tree canopy. She looked up and saw Gilder and smiled weakly as her beloved lowered a smoking pistol and then extended a hand down to her.

"Much as I love seeing you on your back, my sweet, we're not _undressed_ for the occasion."

"True." Clara said, grunting as Gilder took her hand and pulled her back up to her feet. "And there's the more important matter about my _undress_ being for your eyes only." Injured but not out, she managed a sultry look in her eyes as Gilder pulled her to him, smirking that stupid smirk of his. Then her eyes shifted as she saw movement in the corner of her eye, and his did as well.

In one fluid movement she drew her next single shot pistol and aimed under his arm to a soldier coming up behind him, and he did the same for one at her back. Their gunshots went off simultaneously, and two more bodies dropped to the forest floor.

"Moons, I love you." Gilder sighed, and she swooned a little at the feel of his muscular body pressed against hers. Clara mustered a smile back more innocent than how she felt and pecked a kiss on the corner of his mouth, then turned back towards the cages full of Ixa'takans that the Valuans had been guarding.

Using the sword taken from the captain of the _Redoubt_ two continents ago, Gilder smashed the lock off of the three cages, and Clara pulled the pins from the hinges so that when the natives pushed against it, the doors didn't open so much as they _collapsed_ and allowed them to spill out of them like a flood of humanity.

An older man with graying hair stopped while the rest picked up weapons from the fallen soldiers and raced into battle against the remaining Valuans with wild cries. The old fellow stared at Gilder and Clara, curious and cautious and mistrusting.

"Who you, easterners?" He demanded, his voice thick with a native accent as he spoke in the trade language used across Mid-Ocean. "Why you help?"

Clara didn't wait for Gilder to try and suave his way into the fellow's good graces. She reached for honesty. "I'm Clara of the Blue Rogues, and this is Gilder. We came to Ixa'taka to find Centime. We came to help."

The man blinked. "Blue Rogue." He repeated, and his face softened. "We know Blue Rogues. King say...king say Vyse good."

Clara beamed in relief. "Yes. Vyse, and Centime. We were looking for Centime. Do you know where Centime is?"

Amidst the sound of cannonfire pounding down on the Valuan defensive positions that the rushing Ixa'takans hadn't yet reached, the old man blinked and looked up towards their ships still in the sky. And he pointed.

Clara paused and looked back over her shoulder, and instantly felt her heart jump into her throat as a third ship, old and faded from the years, but still somehow flying, settled into place alongside the _Primrose._

The moss-green _Iron Clad._

They'd been looking for Centime, and Centime had found them instead.

* * *

_Horteka, Ixa'taka_

_151 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Docked adjacent to the _Iron Clad_ at its familiar berth at the rear of the village, Clara marveled at the reality of having her adopted mother standing in her parlor while she fitted herself in a new garment that she'd tailored after receiving it from the natives in thanks for the rescue of their people. She heard the clink of a teacup as Carol set it back in its saucer, likely to set it down on the endtable beside her plush pink couch.

"So, tell me about this beau of yours." Carol said, and something in her voice spoke of a tremor that Clara had been expecting. Of concern. Carol wasn't telling her that Gilder was a _terrible_ choice in a man, like Centime's eyes had as soon as he'd gotten over the joy of seeing her again for the first time in years enough to recognize who else had come with her. For all that Centime was warm and loving, he could be remarkably stilted and authoritarian when it came to his children doing something that he considered foolish or reproachful. Like falling for a blackguard who openly declared himself and his crew of knaves an 'air pirate with his own moral compass' as Gilder had earlier. Centime's wary face had darkened when he discovered that Gilder wasn't even a proper Blue Rogue, and Clara had never cared about that. Her adopted father did.

Carol might not be openly disapproving yet, but she was clearly sounding the waters and holding back her judgment.

"I met Gilder the year after you and papa went missing." Clara started off. She finished making the last of her adjustments to the hem of her skirt and slid it up her toned legs, admiring the lines of her calves before the lighter, brightly colored Ixa'takan fabric covered them. "We were both in port at Nasrad, and he...He was _funny_ and warm and charming. He was everything I'd ever wanted to find in a man."

"Clara, that was years ago." Carol protested. "You've been together with him all this time? Are you two married? Have you had children?"

Clara sighed and reached for the chest wrap that she had made out of silk in the Ixa'takan style, binding it around her breasts. "We weren't...we weren't _together_ all of this time. Gilder never felt right about getting into a long-term relationship, he was always up front about it. I wasn't the first woman he had a fling with. And after that night, he took off and left, and there were others after me."

Clara wasn't stupid; she knew that, in enough time, Carol would figure out the truth of the man that her daughter had fallen for. Gilder still carried the nickname of 'The Unfettered' on the bounty boards, for crying out loud. It was like ripping off a bandage, and she was inclined to get it over with quickly. To let her step-mother learn the truth of who Gilder had been on _her_ terms, and not later on when she could tell Centime about it and they would try to blindside Gilder with their fury.

"And yet he's here with you now." Carol finally said, delicately trying to work her way around the feel of it.

"Yes." Clara finished securing her chest wrap and reached for the last garment in the pile. She was already feeling much improved with the heavy layers of her usual outfit replaced. "I'm not saying that there were days, or weeks, or _months_ where I wasn't hurting. I fell in love with him in five days, mama. Five days of shore leave was all it took for me to realize he was the man I had been looking for. That he was the man that my mother had hoped I would meet someday. It...just took him longer to feel the same way."

"What changed, baby?" Carol asked her oldest adopted daughter. "You wouldn't let any man stomp all over your heart, so if he's here with you, if he's _yours_ then something changed."

Clara slipped the midriff-hugging vest over her shoulders and worked the buttons as she finally walked out from behind the privacy curtain, smiling when she saw her stepmother's careworn face leaking concern for her.

"Vyse happened." Clara explained, walking over and sitting down beside her stepmother. "He'd been reunited with his lady loves after I took Aika and Fina to Nasrad, and…"

"Wait." Carol held up a hand, her eyes wide and going wider by the second. "Loves? As in…" The older, mouse-brown haired woman blinked rapidly. Clara giggled.

"You didn't know?" Clara asked her. "You couldn't _see_ it?"

"But how would that even work?" Carol whispered, staring off into empty air, holding up her empty hands as if trying to make a third manifest between them. "They _both_ love him?"

Clara pulled her mother into a gentle side hug. "And each other." She said, kissing Carol's cheek. "I was on board the _Primrose_ while Gilder was on the _Delphinus_ and I fully expected him to run again. He always ran, but especially then after they'd broken out of the Grand Fortress, I knew he'd run." She paused for a beat. "But he _didn't."_

Carol shook off the shock of the news that Vyse and Aika and Fina were in an unheard of _agreed on _love triangle and tried to catch up to the conversation. The poor woman. Clara loved Carol, but her stepmother could be so old fashioned sometimes. She wondered what she'd say when she found out that there were women on her crew who were couples as tightly bound as any man and woman could be.

"Why didn't he?" Carol finally asked.

"Because of Vyse. Because Vyse told him something that terrified Gilder so badly that he got back on his ship, and instead of flying off, he stayed put. That was where I found him, in his quarters on the _Claudia_ pulling down all the portraits of the women he'd been with over the years and stuffing them in a sack. He was taking down every picture. Every picture but mine."

"He doesn't deserve you." Carol finally got out, her voice tight and only a little angered. "You're my precious girl, someone to be cherished, not used and thrown away."

"He knows that, mama." Clara reassured her stepmother. "He's still scared of it some days. That he's going to wake up and I won't be here. That he isn't good enough for me."

"He _isn't_ good enough for you!" Carol pressed.

Clara pursed her lips. Well. So much for a rational discussion about who she could and could not love. She loved Carol, loved her stepmother, but the woman just _couldn't see._

So she stood up from the sofa, walked over to her desk, and took out a waterproofed leather carrying tube as long as her arm. Clara walked back over and set it in her mother's lap.

"You told me once that you fell in love with papa because he always treated you as the most important person in his life. That no matter what else was going on, or how many other people he had to take care of, he always took the time to look out for you, to make sure that you _knew_ that he loved you. That you were always in his heart and in his thoughts." Clara said. "And _my_ mother told me to find someone that I could love with my whole heart." Then she gestured to the scroll case.

Hesitantly curious, Carol opened up the end of it and looked inside, seeing the edge of a rolled up length of canvas. She glanced up to Clara, and the red-haired Blue Rogue gave her a short nod of affirmation.

So Clara watched and held her breath as her stepmother carefully pulled out the canvas and unrolled it. The older woman had it about halfway undone before she froze and there was a hitch in her breathing. Clara just smiled and waited, trying to hold back the irregular thumping in her heart.

Carol looked from the start of the painted portrait up to Clara with wide eyes. Clara looked down and saw the start of it. In a dimmed room under candlelight, she lay in repose with a hand resting against her throat as she looked towards the artist with trusting, alluring eyes. It was the portrait that Gilder had wanted to make of her, a portrait that he had done for no other woman who ever sat for him or that he had ever bedded.

Carol couldn't bring herself to unroll the rest of it. Clara reached down and did it for her, forcing her stepmother to take in the sight of all of her, resplendently, gloriously nude. It stirred up a familiar longing in her as Clara remembered how erotic those two hours had been, all of her laid bare to his burning gaze and the strokes of his brush.

Clara had always known that she was a beautiful woman. Until Gilder had finished his work and shown it to her after the paint had dried and they recovered from the sweaty mess of the lovemaking that had followed it, she hadn't known what he thought of her appearance. Under the mastery of his art, he had shown it to her in a way that his words, that his caresses and kisses could not. He had given it to her as token and promise.

There would be no other woman but her who he would love. That his heart was hers and hers alone, if she wanted it.

Carol brought a hand to cover her mouth, and Clara startled when she saw tears gathering in the woman's eyes. Not tears of dismay, she had seen those too often growing up. Tears of awe.

"He painted this?" Carol asked, and Clara nodded. It was surreal to watch her mother lower her hand away from her face and trace shaking fingertips over the surface of the dried oil paint of the canvas, following the curve of her body. "This is how he sees you?"

A lump built up in her throat as Clara looked under the surface of her form and saw the nuance and artistry of it. Beyond the physical, Gilder had taken such care in her pose, in her eyes and her smile and revealed the hidden depths of her.

Beyond the smile, the sadness. Behind the confidence, the doubts. And how all of that somehow faded for an instant in that room when she had bared all of herself to him and glowed to be seen for who she really was, to be seen by him.

To be seen by someone who loved all of her, the woman and the warrior and the worrier wrapped up in one. How she felt freer under his gaze than she'd ever been in her life.

"You're so beautiful." Carol uttered, looking at the portrait of her for a few seconds more before rolling it back up, stowing it away. Hiding what was meant for Clara's eyes, for Gilder's eyes alone. And she looked up at Clara after, unshed tears making her eyes shimmer. "Why did you show me this?"

"So you would understand." Clara told her stepmother. "He's not the same man he was 5 years ago. He's so much better."

Carol sniffed once. "And you love him?"

"With my whole heart, mama." Clara beamed back, realizing she was getting misty-eyed as well. She took the scroll case back from her stepmother and sank back onto the couch, holding the other woman gently in a hug that they both needed. "He _sees_ me. He's a good man. He _is_ good enough for me. You just don't see it yet."

"You see it." Carol said, kissing her cheek. "And I'll make your stepfather see it. Vyse changed him that much?"

"Vyse is going to change everything, mama." Clara promised the woman, feeling it burn in her heart as unbreakable truth. "He's going to change the world."

"So long as those girls are with him, you mean."

"You won't tell daddy about them, will you?" Clara asked her. "What they have is so beautiful, but I don't know what other people would think if they knew."

"It's none of their business. And it's none of your stepfather's concern either." Carol shrugged. She wiped at her eyes and laughed. "Come on. I've had my tea and you look rather lovely in your new outfit. I'm keen to see what dear Gilder will do when he sees you in it." Then the older woman smirked. "Remind him that you can't spend all day locked in his bedroom, though, there are still things to be done."

_"Mama!"_ Clara blushed, jerking up to her feet as her stepmother laughed.

A few minutes later, Carol laughed all the more when Gilder, who had been roped into helping Centime with the install of the new sky rift engine modifications onto the _Iron Clad,_ took one look at Clara in her sarong and her sleeveless vest, and promptly dropped a large wrench onto the toe of his boot. He managed to refrain from absconding with Clara to his bedroom until after dinner that night, but he made up for it afterwards. Vigorously.

* * *

_Horteka, Outer Shore_

_154 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The children around Centime's expanded campground and recently modified harbor had been curious to their new visitors, but relaxed as soon as word got round that Clara was another Blue Rogue like their dad, and even _better,_ was a big sister to all of them. They were all darling things, orphans rescued from _everywhere. _From the struggling and conquered islands of Mid-Ocean, from the lands under the red moon of Nasr, and even a girl of Ixa'takan blood. Full of energy and life, they had danced around Clara and Gilder and the men and women under their command at the party held in celebration the day after their arrival. They had danced and peppered the adults with their innocent (Or at least, innocent _sounding)_ questions about Clara and Gilder, and she'd taken a great amount of pleasure in watching them wind Gilder up to a blushing, sputtering mess while her stepmother smiled behind a hand so the children wouldn't get _ideas._

There was still friction between Centime and Gilder at times, but her beloved air pirate had the tacit approval of 'Mama Carol' after the night they had talked in private. That, more than anything, confused Centime, leaving him unable to growl in dismissal or welcome him completely. Clara found her stepfather's need to _'defend his little girl's honor'_ incredibly amusing, given how thoroughly she and Gilder 'Knew' each other, in every sense of the word.

It was made all the more heartening by how Gilder had turned his natural charm up as high as Clara had ever seen it. He'd won her heart with his vamping,and it was what he went back to now. His offer to paint a _family portrait_ had been a masterstroke, in her eyes. While the children played and ran around them all wildly, Clara sat between her stepmother and her stepfather with an easy smile, her eyes never leaving Gilder's face as he looked between his canvas and the subjects of his work.

Every time he caught her eyes, the sober look of concentration he had faded just a touch for a smile of acknowledgement and belonging.

"I can't believe that you volunteered to help train the Ixa'takans to fly and fight. It seems so out of character for you, papa."

"After all the children I've adopted over the years, Clara, it surprises you that I'd adopt an entire people?" Centime countered. Clara giggled as Gilder cleared his throat and gave the elder Blue Rogue another look.

"Centime, I know it's difficult, but please, _try_ not to move around while I'm painting you. Ixa'taka only gets so much unobscured sunlight what with all the rain."

"How are you planning on getting all our children into the portrait?"

"Getting children to sit still for _any_ length of time is impossible, old man, you ought to know that." Gilder countered with an innocent voice. "I'll be sketching character studies after this with some graphite sticks and I'll add them in after."

"Will you be putting yourself in the picture as well, love?" Clara asked him, which earned a fresh sputter of incredulity from Centime and _another_ chastisement from Gilder for her old man to hold still.

"Hm, maybe."

Centime wasn't quite so receptive to her idea. "This is supposed to be a family portrait, Gilder, and…"

"And I _am family."_ Gilder snapped back, with a fire that he usually reserved for fighting Valuans and Black Pirates. He leaned out from the portrait, holding his brush like a dagger. "If that's too much for you, then just say so. Because I'm _more_ than happy to pack up my bags and go looking for Dyne now that you've got the engine modifications well in hand. I don't need you and I don't need your _Code._ I have the love of a wonderful woman and skies that I'm fighting to keep free from oppression, and a dream that I thought was impossible until Vyse showed up out of thin air and put the fear of the Moons into Valua." Gilder's face eased off as he looked at Clara again. "We came here because she asked if we could. But she'll leave if I ask her to."

And she would, Clara knew. She was already a heartbeat away from standing up, hugging her stepmother, and storming out.

Centime didn't react the way she expected him to, and definitely not the way Gilder had. The Blue Rogue who could father no children of his own and instead became a father to children who had no others to claim blinked three times, then sank in on himself and finally smiled for the first time in days.

"Good. My daughter deserves a man willing to stand up for her. Clara, you have my blessing to marry him if you wish."

Gilder went pale. "Wait, what? Marriage? That's not - we haven't…"

Clara laughed and leaned over to kiss her stepfather on the cheek. "Thank you, papa. When I get around to asking him, I'll let you know."

Gilder kept sputtering as Centime, _the devious man that he was,_ smirked and looked up at the man who had claimed Clara's heart. "Gilder, my boy. Go ahead and paint yourself behind Clara. Feel free to have your hand resting on my shoulder if you like. You've earned it."

When Clara was 8, her father was arrested and executed. When she was 11, her mother had died of illness. When she was 13, she'd let Centime and Carol formally adopt her. When she was 21 as a new captain, she lost them. When she was 22, she fell in love with Gilder.

Now at 27, Clara looked on her family, a bizarre mixture of adoptees and crew and pure Gilder with distant Blue Rogues like Vyse and Dyne over the horizon, and knew how right her long-dead mother had been. She had grown up to be someone wonderful, and nobody in her life that she loved ever told her she wasn't.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hey. Heyy. Did you know that this story is also being cross-posted on Archive Of Our Own? I'd give you the link but FFNet doesn't believe in allowing hyperlinks. AO3 does. You know what else is on AO3? More author commentary on chapters and moments from the game I liked. You know what else is on AO3? A companion story to BTR that you have to be a registered user to view meant for mature audiences. It's called "Between Three Rogues: The Bedroom Diaries" and has all the stuff I felt wasn't appropriate for the main story. You know. In case you needed another reason to broaden your fanfiction website horizons...


	30. Do You Really Think I Would Hurt Them

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Thirty: Do You Really Think I Would Hurt Them**

They had said that there was nothing on the other side of the Dark Rift. Legends said that Daccat had traveled the world and had pillaged and taken the treasures of the lands under all six moons. Fina had said there was an entire continent and the descendants of another lost civilization living there waiting to be discovered.

Only Fina had spoken with a sense of absolute knowing, and Vyse would always back his Silvite partner to the hilt. It became a mantra that he'd fed to the crew the entire time that they were inside The Dark Rift. _Fina says that there's more on the other side, and I believe her._ He took to saying it without blinking, staring hard at every crewmember who evoked the response out of him until they backed away, believing him or not. When Fina started getting sick and then finally had her breakdown in the shadow of the Black Moon Stone at the heart of the Dark Rift, everyone worried. Vyse almost stopped eating, and Aika divided her time between sleeping in Fina's bunk and clinging to Vyse in her own quarters with a desperate need that he understood perfectly. Without Fina, neither of them felt balanced. And neither of them felt like sleeping in the enormous bed in the captain's cabin without her.

But one morning, as they were on the outbound leg inside the Rift by his reckoning, Vyse overheard Marco speaking to one of the Esperanzan sailors in a corridor belowdecks, with Pow ruffing softly in support. The older sailor had been speaking out of fear, giving himself to that familiar hopelessness. And Marco had stood there, short but sprouting and filling out as he was finally eating right and getting fresh air, and was defiant in the face of that pessimism. _'Fina says that there's more on the other side, and I believe her.'_ He parroted Vyse's words at the older man, who took a step back, and Marco walked around him and disappeared.

It spread like wildfire after that, until not even the rescued sailor Robinson who spent all his time within eyesight if not arm's reach of his wife failed to repeat it.

They all believed in Vyse, and because of Vyse, they believed in her. They kept on believing until they cleared the Dark Rift and it went from believing to _knowing._

The night that they went to plant the tattered expedition flag and hold a ceremony for the sailors of Esperanza who never saw the other side, there was a hush when Fina stepped forward to climb onto one of the skiffs. Vyse watched as every set of eyes turned to her and stared in wonder and reverence, he watched as Fina felt it and shivered and almost turned back to run away from them. If Aika hadn't come up and put one hand on her shoulder and used the other to grip Fina's hand tightly, the Silvite probably would have run away. She held Fina's hand through the entire ceremony, grounding their blond-haired lover.

And that night when they had finally gone to bed, in _their bed,_ Vyse and Aika cuddled Fina between them as the Silvite shakily confessed that she didn't like everyone looking at her like that. Like she was an oracle with all the answers.

Vyse had smiled when Aika had leaned in and captured Fina's lips with hers, getting her to relax. Then she had pulled back and smiled.

_'You don't know everything, Princess. It's part of your charm.'_ And then Fina had smiled and nestled in tightly between them, falling asleep shortly after.

They had said that The Dark Rift was the edge of the world.

Vyse was happy to say that it was just the beginning of the next horizon.

* * *

_The Skies Under the Blue Moon_

_Delphinus, Engineering Compartment_

_173 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Among the many lessons that Dyne had tried to impress on Vyse in the 7 years that he and Aika had served as crewmembers aboard the _Albatross_ were several that touched on the responsibilities of a captain. A captain was not only responsible for the lives of every single one of his crewmembers, but for the entire ship itself. A captain had to know the ins and outs of every job and posting, at least enough to be passable at it. He couldn't hold a candle to Aika's talents in engineering, but he had learned enough in the 7 years they'd flown together to keep pace with her explanations and to help her out with the less detailed work. He was a much better ship's helmsman and navigator, though.

It was with that same attitude that he now dragged Prince Enrique down into the belly of the ship, giving Enrique a much more hands-on tour about the mechanics that kept them in the air and sailing on. Enrique did his best to follow along, but it was clear that mechanical engineering had not been a topic that he'd studied during his time in the palace. The explanation about the condensors that gave the ship lift went right over his head, and the followup about the moonstone reactors, and why they were so much more efficient as a power source than the tanks of combustible gas used just prior to the Valuan-Nasrian War of 20 years ago was something that Enrique knew only as a historical lesson. He did seem to grasp that the ship's enormous turbines that powered the four propellor driveshafts as well as the maneuvering spinners utilized steam power; The ship's water reservoir was enormous, and waste heat pumped through the secondary piping passed through the storage cisterns that gave the ship its most unique feature, that of hot water for the showers and the kitchens.

Engine maintenance was looking to be another subject that would require multiple lessons for Enrique to grasp.

"Enrique." Vyse said patiently, while the never-one-to-suffer-fools-lightly Lapen stood by and tried his best not to explode and call the exiled Prince whatever terrible name he'd thought up today. "This is important. A good captain needs to know these things. A good captain has to project confidence and understanding to his crew. Do you think it would do me any good to spout off arbitrary demands to Lapen here, or Hans, or _Aika_ without a clear understanding of how difficult the work is? The only thing that would accomplish would be to get them all mad at me."

"Yes, Vyse, but you're the captain. I'm not." Enrique tried to argue. "When am I ever going to need to know this? When I'm on the bridge, I spend my time in cartography and navigation!"

"You're a command officer aboard." Vyse reminded him. "On this ship, you may not be captain, but in rank of authority you fall right behind Aika."

"And Fina." Enrique pointed out, while Lapen's arms tightened.

Vyse laughed a little. "Have you ever known Fina to give an order?" He asked, smiling easily. She _had,_ but only ever in private. The rest of the time, it was always couched in a request given with an easy smile. "No, Enrique. Fina's place aboard is unique. She goes where she is needed." He set a hand on Enrique's elbow. "You gave us this ship. You gave us this chance. I need to know that if I'm not here, if I'm indisposed, that there will be someone else that the crew can look to for direction."

Enrique seemed uncomfortable with that. "Won't they look to Aika?"

They would, Vyse knew, but an uncomfortable truth settled in his chest. That if Aika was hurt enough that she couldn't give orders as his first officer, that he would have already been cold and dead for longer. Vyse would never let her, or Fina be hurt so long as he drew breath.

Whatever was playing out over his face as he waded through that dire possibility was enough to startle Enrique into the beginnings of awestruck horror. Vyse shook it off and managed a smile. "Contingencies, 'Rique. Contingencies." And Enrique swallowed and nodded, then Vyse laughed to break the somber tone. "I wish Aika was here, though. She could explain it so much better. She's forgotten more about engineering than I'll ever know. Tore apart an entire moonstone engine when she was eight, you know. Put it back together again and it ran even smoother. Dad couldn't find it in him to get mad at her."

"Where is Aika anyways?" Enrique glanced around. "I didn't see her scheduled for the second shift."

"Ah, she…" Lapen started, but Vyse cut him off.

"Indisposed." Vyse told the exiled prince, "Not feeling the greatest this morning. But she'll be back tomorrow, I stopped and spoke to Ilchymis at breakfast and he'll be looking after her. Her and Fina both, actually."

Menstrual cramps, Vyse shook his head. He knew that it was part of being a woman, his mother had drilled that into his head when he was younger that there were times that girls would prefer to be left alone, and both of his loves swore that the medicine they were taking for birth control helped to make their monthlies hurt less, but apparently passing through the Dark Rift had been rough on them in ways that nobody had ever thought of. He wasn't sure how usual it was for two women to go through their monthly at the same time, but somehow Aika and Fina were.

"How do you know that, sir?" Lapen inquired, one eyebrow raised. "I only just found out myself half an hour ago when I called up to the bridge and got a message routed back from Dr. Ilchymis."

Because he had been there in the room with the both of them, Vyse didn't say. Because he'd felt how his loves had cringed away from him when they woke, hands around their abdomen and their heads aching. Because he'd set the shower to scalding to soak towels at Aika's request so they could have something warm to hold against themselves. Because he'd carried them, _both_ of them from the captain's cabin to Aika's and set them onto the smaller bunk side by side. Because he'd lingered there with his mind warring between the need to go get help for them and the feelings of warmth that seeing his loves curl up next to each other and find solace in the easy belonging of tanned skin next to pale, red hair transposed against blond.

"They told me first." He said, which was both true and left out plenty of details that neither of the men standing by him deserved to know. Lapen nodded, reading something into it that made him dismiss his idle curiosity. Vyse blinked when the reaction from Enrique wasn't nearly so muted.

For a moment, just a moment until Enrique schooled his features, there was outrage and fury. And loathing, a loathing directed straight at him.

* * *

_174 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

There were plenty of new things to mark down in his sailor's journal, and the benefit of having Tikatika and Domingo on hand was that the two were remarkable in finding things that Vyse might have stumbled across blindly. The morning after the flag ceremony, Tikatika had directed them towards a nearby island where he'd seen birds roosting. Domingo had been the one to warn them off of hunting the birds for food, pointing out that they were apparently nesting. They'd marked the position of the nest for later scrutiny and left the strange, long-legged birds in peace as they headed north. They didn't get a day past the thin sky rift before they came across a discovery so blatantly obvious that even Marco could pick it out when he was up on the bridge for part of his shift.

With Don at the helm, Vyse, Domingo and Enrique went out onto the foredeck to watch as the newest object of their attention came into view. Along a line of small islands that had somehow formed close together or been _wrestled together_ stood an enormous wall of carved stone, perhaps pristine white at one time but now crumbled in places and grayed with age and exposure to the elements. It wasn't a consistent barrier, but as he scanned the horizon, adjusting the telescopic lens of his goggle, Vyse could make out that other parts of the wall stood further along to the east, gently curving for a time until it faded off into the horizon heading north. Like it was marking a border.

Like it was a warning.

"Definitely manmade." Domingo hummed cheerfully, making a sketch of them. "And very old. I'd have to get closer to them and get my hands on some samples to make a more educated guess, but we're looking at structures that must be at least a thousand years old. If these ancient walls could talk, can you imagine what they would say?"

"Stay out?" Vyse intoned sarcastically. He looked over to Enrique, not surprised to find the prince making a face like he'd sucked on a lemon. "You have an idea for a name, Domingo?"

"The Great Walls?"

Vyse thought about it. "No. How about the Guardian Walls?"

Domingo sounded it out in his head and shrugged. "Good as anything else. Are we flying in for a closer look?"

"I think we'd better." Vyse scanned the horizon again. "Enrique, how are our supplies looking?"

"Fair, although if we can find some skyfish soon, we'll be in better shape. And the crew would appreciate some fresher fare."

"Hm. I'll talk to Tikatika. He mentioned seeing some off to the west closer to this side of the Dark Rift the other day, and he should be able to supply a heading after we finish up here. We'll have to break out the fishing nets again."

"It's been a learning experience, fishing." Enrique admitted. "But there is that old saying about teaching a man to fish."

Vyse snorted under his breath and turned back for the hatch back inside of the ship. "You've been teaching me how to swordfight at the next level. What saynig do you suppose goes with that?"

"Teach a man to swordfight, and he'll either get himself into more trouble, or get himself out of it." Enrique intoned.

"I'm a Blue Rogue." Vyse reminded the man as he reached the hatch and spun the pressure seal, swinging the hatch open.

"Meaning what?" Enrique asked as he followed him inside.

"It's usually both." Vyse admitted wanly.

* * *

_Delphinus_

_Rec Room_

_175 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

The Blue Moon had been low on the horizon and barely visible when they had cleared the sky rift, but once they sailed past the Guardian Walls, it had been steadily tracking up in an arc that would take it directly overhead. Just like the Yellow Moon seemed eternally locked above Valua, and the Red Moon hung above the great desert that they had crossed to reach the Temple of Pyrynn, so long ago.

If Vyse were to look out the window of the gym, he would have to crane his neck to see it because of its azimuth and squint harder because of the glow of sunrise. Of course, that would first require him to not be quite so distracted by the morning training Enrique was putting him through.

It was _crazy_ how good Enrique was with a blade. He only had one sword to the twin cutlasses Vyse favored and he was still grinding Vyse down.

"Not bad." Enrique praised him as he gave ground a step, never faltering from the narrow profile he presented towards Vyse. "Your footwork's improved. You'll need a grounded stance if you hope to match Galcian. The sword he uses is more of a _cudgel_ and he's been known to throw his opponents ass over teakettle in training even when he _isn't_ trying to kill them. When it comes to Galcian, _never_ try to duel him on his own terms. The man lives on raw power and brutality. A much better tack, which you seem to be more suited for thankfully, is to be where his blade _isn't_ and to then follow it up with precise strikes."

"You're saying…" Vyse started, using his off-hand and his side-gripped cutlass to deflect Enrique's blade away, "...He's like a boulder you gotta chip away at?" His riposte was a straight thrust that actually forced Enrique to weave to the side, and then that long and tapered dual-edged blade of his swept back and knocked Vyse's blade away.

Enrique was a skinny little thing, but while he'd never seen much of a hard day's work or sailing, the musculature he did have had been developed for the singular purpose of dueling. Underneath the royal vestments he still wore on occasion as circumstances allowed for was the build of a honed swordsman. The strength of his right arm and shoulder and his back were considerable, and his legs were toned, hiding their explosive power.

Impatience, as always, got the better of Vyse. He came at Enrique again in a flurry of swordstrikes that pressed the prince backwards, even causing him to lose the beret from the top of his neatly trimmed blond hair. And just like always, Enrique parried and dodged and weaved until the tempo faltered and Enrique's sword curved around, catching at the hilt and ripping first his main cutlass away and then his off-hand sword shortly after. The duel ended with Enrique's blade scant inches away from Vyse's face, and he froze.

Then Enrique smirked and retracted his blade, sheathing it. "There's a time for ferocity, Vyse, and that wasn't it."

"As you say." Vyse sighed. "I swear it's like you're made of ice some days. Does nothing faze you?"

"Many things." Enrique said. "However, in a duel, losing one's temper is the quickest way to ensuring you get run through." He reached down for his beret and set it atop his head, then tapped the side of his skull. "This is the most important weapon you will ever wield, Vyse. The moment you lose control of it is the moment you may as well start swinging a wooden club at your opponent."

They were interrupted when the partition dividing their half of the center gym area from the other moved aside, and Fina walked in with a small smile.

"Let's stop for a water break." Enrique told Vyse, eyeing the Silvite and giving her a polite nod. "It seems you're needed for ship's business."

"Always." Vyse said, drinking a quick swig from his thermos of cool smallbeer as he walked over to meet her out of earshot of Enrique. Fina's smile only deepened as he neared, and she reached out for his hand. Only present company kept her from leaning up into him for a kiss, and that was a near thing given her body language. "Good morning, Fina."

"Captain." She answered him, squeezing his fingers gently. "I was wondering if you'd made any plans yet for lunch."

"Unless an emergency comes up, I'm free." Vyse lifted the eyebrow over his goggle. "What did you have in mind?"

"Miss Fatima and Mrs. Caruso were so ecstatic with the ingredients that we found on Spice Island that they're making a special meal. Of course, right now I'm still busy in the ship's greenhouse keeping an eye on the new cuttings and plantings, so they offered to make a picnic basket for myself and the two 'helpers' I mentioned."

_"Helpers." _Vyse repeated, sliding his arm up Fina's sleeve, tracing the soft skin underneath. He lowered his voice. "Can she make it?"

"I hope she does." Fina admitted, and Vyse could only nod. "But after our sick day yesterday, she said that she had some catching up to do in engineering. There's one modification for the Moonstone Cannon that we've been planning since our run-in with that creature at the exit of the Dark Rift, and she's agonizing over the design before we commit to the fabrication phase. It should help to tighten the focus of the beam and limit bleed-off."

Vyse bit his lip. "Speaking of bleeding, how are you feeling today?"

Fina laughed at his concern. "I'm fine now, Vyse. Ilchymis had just the thing, and with that, all we needed was some rest. It's okay, Vyse, just a part of life." He opened his mouth to speak, and she raised a hand to stop him. "And Aika's fine, too. Do you think I would let her go crawling around in engineering if she wasn't?" That hand came up and pressed gently against his chest, and Vyse sighed.

"No. You wouldn't. But she really does push herself too hard. So do you."

"And you don't, lover mine?" Fina countered, shaking her head at him. "Everyone on board this ship looks up to us. Counts on us. That's why we have to look out for each other."

Vyse blinked, and something in his head clicked into place. "That's why you set up a picnic in the greenhouse for us." Fina's smile turned radiant as he said it so clearly. "You're trying to get Aika and me to relax a little."

She shrugged. "And I miss you. How often do I get to spend time with you two when we're not sleeping or in the thick of a fight?"

_Not often enough,_ Vyse knew. "I'm sorry." He apologized, and his hand went up her arm, past the sleeve and her elbow and the golden band around her bicep until he was cupping her shoulder and caressing it with his thumb. Her eyelids fluttered as she shivered briefly. "I'll be there. I promise. I just hope Aika will be also."

"If she doesn't, that's okay too." Fina reassured him. "It just means I get you to myself if she's busy."

Vyse blinked at the possessive purr in her voice. "I thought we shared?" He asked her hesitantly. Fina smiled, then did what she must have been wanting to do the entire time she'd been in the gym, watching him sweat and duel. She gripped his shirt and pulled him down as she leaned up, pressed her free hand behind his head, and kissed him hard. His own arms went around her and palmed her backside, pulling her in even closer.

He had no reason to stop her, and soon they were both breathing hard as they pulled apart. A promise beckoned in her darkening blue eyes.

"Sometimes we share." She said huskily. "And sometimes we _take turns."_

Vyse swallowed as his blood pooled in his groin at the suggestion. "Aika's okay with it?"

"Her idea." Fina's teeth showed in her grin. "So, yes."

He laughed softly. "Moons, I love you two."

"And we love you, you pirate." Fina teased him, finally pulling back and making no move to hide how flushed her face was. She blinked twice, then looked over to Enrique and smiled even more saucily, waving at him. "Don't hurt him too badly, Enrique. The ship needs him, after all."

Vyse grinned as she sashayed back out the way she'd come, and kept on grinning until he turned back around to face Enrique. Then the grin died.

Enrique's face was purpled in swallowed rage, and there was a look of such utter _loathing_ on his face. Like somehow Vyse wasn't his friend or his ally, but had instead descended to the depths of the lowest barrel of humanity's dregs.

"Break's over." Enrique declared in crisp and bitten off words. "Blunt your blades." As he spoke, Enrique was already drawing out his own sword and running a hand over it, whispering the words to a spell that surrounded the edges of his sword with just enough concentrated magic to keep it from being able to draw blood. It could still break bones, though, and Vyse wondered if he meant to try for it.

Warily, he did the same to his cutlasses. "Enrique, is there something wrong? Why are you so angry at me?"

"You have the _gall_ to stand there, you blackguard, and feign innocence to the cause of my rage?" Enrique thundered, and this time around, there was no easy rhythm. He came charging at Vyse like an executioner, and every slice and stab of his sword was deadly accurate.

"The hell, Enrique?!" Vyse snapped, finding himself pressed to his absolute limits as Enrique's stamina persisted, never letting up. He kept pressing and pressing, never giving Vyse a moment to attack.

"In every way, Vyse, in every way but _one_ you are the most honorable man I have ever met! And yet for all your fairness, your courage, and your mercy, you persist in causing harm for your own foul desires!"

"What in blazes are you talking about, you maniac?" Vyse snapped back at him, using a crossguard block to keep Enrique from bringing his sword down in a heavy overhanded blow that would have set his bell ringing for hours.

Enrique's legendary composure, the thing he forever tried to impress on Vyse as _necessary_ for swordfighting, seemed well and truly lost. And the fight only ended when his off-hand cutlass was torn away from him and a ferocious slash resulted in a blow right at his wrist, forcing him to drop his sword.

Enrique stood there over him as Vyse crumpled to the ground, cradling his injury, hissing at what wasn't a break, but would definitely leave a bruise until he got it treated. The two of them breathed in loud, gulping gasps, Vyse afraid and Enrique barely holding on to his sanity.

"Please." Vyse begged him. "Enough, Enrique. Whatever I've done, I apologize. Whatever I've done, tell me so I can fix it."

The wild look in Enrique's eyes finally died off. He scowled and slid his rapier back in its scabbard, then turned away.

"She deserves better than this. They both do. Tell them the truth, Vyse. Or I will."

Leaving Vyse hurting and flummoxed as to his rage, Enrique stormed out of the rec room to report for his duties.

* * *

_Afternoon_

As they headed north and tracked east, keeping Tikatika's gimlet eye fixed on the blue moon, Vyse got a queasy feeling in his stomach that he couldn't place. To be certain, there was whatever had set Enrique off and left the prince fuming, which was a reaction that Vyse had never inspired out of the man before. Aika only showed up at the tail end of lunch, after he and Fina had finished their nibbling and she'd pinned him down onto the stack of burlap bags of soil in their greenhouse for some very aggressive kissing. They'd moved to separate, but Aika had given Fina a good, hard kiss of her own and then shoved her back at him with a grin before going after the last of the food. The feeling had started when they'd departed Spice Island and it stayed with him even now. It felt like he was being watched, and the usual suspects weren't responsible. Marco was too busy with his duties and keeping tabs on Pow, and everyone else had their assignments.

Standing on the Bridge, he asked Tikatika for a scan of the horizon and it came back negative. There was nobody around them in any direction in the Central Sky.

In Hindsight, Vyse realized, he should have also told Tikatika to _look up._ But then, it had never occurred to him that there were ships that could fly _above condensor altitude limits._

So there they were, getting pounded by a pair of strangely designed warships with angry animal-faced carvings on their bows, and as the ship rattled around him, Vyse was scowling to himself and realizing that the Guardian Walls they'd passed by days ago really _were_ a warning.

He activated the speaking tubes by the captain's chair. "Bridge to Engineering. Aika, tell me we're holding up under this."

_"For now. The Delphinus is packing some serious armor, but those warshots they're lobbing at us are playing hell with our systems! It's like we're getting nailed by squalls here, if the ship was any smaller and less sturdy we'd have foundered!"_

Vyse had to agree with that assertion. The bulk of the enemy's firepower seemed magically based, and worse, they darted down to a proper altitude only rarely. Torpedoes seemed to be their best bet for an attack, but the pounding from their blue magic shells kept tossing them around like a kite in a storm, making firing and tracking their shots a dicey proposition.

It was the kind of challenge that one man lived for. He switched channels. "Khazim."

_"Captain! These blasted eastern ships are giving us a devil of a time!"_

"They're throwing magic shells at us, Khazim." Vyse told him. Fina made a noise to get his attention, and he looked over to see his Silvite raising one hand, channeling magic around it. Purple magic.

The power of ice, and of neutralization. With her other hand, she made a zipping motion over her mouth, then set her hand on one of the pedestals that served as a feeder line to the ship's moonstone reservoir.

A silencing spell. He caught onto it quickly.

"Khazim." He was calm in the face of the danger. "Load a blank moonstone warshot and switch the forward battery to spell-receive. We're going to try something here. If we can keep ourselves from getting hit, can you land the shot?"

_"Get me close and keep us from being rattled, Captain Vyse, and I will _hurt_ them."_ Khazim answered heatedly. Vyse smiled.

"Load up every torpedo tube as well. I want them _sunk_ after we shut them up."

_"Aye-aye, sir!"_

Vyse killed the connection, grabbed the black tricorn hat that Rupee Larso had gifted to him in Maramba and stood up, glancing to the helm. "Don."

The old Esperanzan sailor looked back for half a second and then smiled thinly. "Let me guess. You'd like to take the wheel."

"If you don't mind." Vyse said, slipping the hat on and pulling it down until it was snugly fit over his hair.

"Not in the slightest." Don stayed on station until Vyse was beside him, and kept his hands on the telemotor until Vyse had one on it. Then he stepped back. "You have the conn."

"I have the conn." Vyse answered him, and slid into place. He didn't look back over his shoulder. He didn't dare. He kept his eyes on the strange warships four times smaller than they were and flipped the switch for Engineering. "Aika? Get ready for some quick speed changes."

_"Pulling off a trick?"_

"In true Blue Rogues fashion. Fina?"

"I am ready, captain." That steady, reassuring voice answered him. Vyse gripped the wheel tighter, and waited.

In all, it took only 20 seconds to reverse the fortunes of battle. The lead ship with their spellshots dove down, firing on them. Vyse jerked the ship to a halt and their shot sailed past their nose harmlessly, then moved the throttle back to full, bursting ahead and turning in sharply to clear their stern and narrow their profile. The swordfighting lessons with Enrique paid off in full as the followup shot screamed just off their portside, and then the enemy ship was closing in.

Vyse kept the ship steady and on track for a perfect broadside as he felt the pressure of Fina's magic flowing into the ship's reservoir and into the forward battery. Khazim had his perfect chance, and he took it; the enspelled shell smashed amidships on the lead enemy vessel and their cannons fell eerily silent. The hatches over the torpedo tubes all snapped up in a synchronized burst and six perfectly aimed torpedoes screamed through the ether, striking the crippled vessel and blowing it apart down to the keel. As the cheers rose up, Vyse shivered to see that the other ship hadn't even waited to react to the death of their once-partner, but had instead moved in and thrown mooring lines that caught to the ship's rails, tethering them in.

"You have the conn, Don." Vyse said, stepping back.

"Aye, sir." The Esperanzan quickly resumed his post, and Vyse looked over to Fina and then Enrique, who in spite of still being furious at him for some reason, knew well enough to stay focused and follow orders in the life or death situation.

Vyse lingered just long enough to trigger the shipwide broadcast by the helm. "All hands, lock down your doors and arm yourselves. Aika, meet us at the foredeck hatch. Prepare to repel boarders."

* * *

_176 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

The bad part about sailing into unknown skies to find unknown lands was that you lacked any meaningful intelligence about where you were headed. What might be there. Or _who._

After taking down one aggressor vessel with some marvelous flying and strategy, they'd been boarded by the second. By only two men of such unique appearance and skills that it had taken them all aback. They carried no weapons, fought only with fists and feet and elbows. After demanding that they, the 'Westerners' surrender their swords and weapons, and being refused, the two had almost beaten them.

Almost. Enrique had found that his skill with a blade was neutralized by the swiftness of their movements. In the end it had taken first Enrique's ability to shield physical blows and then Vyse's talent of summoning up ghostly counter-attacking auras to neutralize their clear advantage. Put on the back foot by the unexpected defense and then blown off of them by the combined spellcasting and grenade work of rapidly forming ice pillars by Fina and Aika, the pair that had called themselves Jao and Mao in horribly stilted and _old_ Mid-Ocean trade tongue had opted for retreat. But not before declaring the group they were with, and warning them to fly no further.

Vyse paused as he finished up his meal and let the name roll through his mind again.

_The Tenkou._

The thing that he'd struggled to understand the most was the visceral and _angry_ reaction that they'd had to him. As if they knew him somehow, or perhaps saw a reflection of a long-hated enemy in his appearance. They kept looking at his face, at his head the most in that fight.

There was something important there. Something he was missing, that he wasn't seeing.

They just didn't know _enough_ for him to figure it out. He got up with a grunt and took his tray back over to the counter, giving a faded smile to Fatima and the Esperanzan who worked with the cook on the night shift. "It was very good. You outdid yourself tonight, Fatima. How are the spices working out for you?"

The Nasrian woman smiled and nodded at him as her associate took the tray for cleaning. "Very good, captain. The Khale, especially. You need good Khale to make proper kabal skewers."

"Oh?" Vyse lifted his chin up. "Been a while since I've had one of those. Not since we left Nasrad the last time."

"My mother makes the best in all of Nasr. I could probably come close." Fatima said, then shrank back and bit her lip. "Captain, if...do you think that we'll make it back?"

"Yes." Vyse replied immediately. "Why are you worried about that?"

"I'm just not sure if I would be welcomed back home. My mother…" Fatima started delicately. Vyse waited her out, and after a moment she sighed. "I did not part on the best of terms with her when I left for Esperanza. I followed a sailor I thought was in love with me. But it was mere infatuation for him."

"We'll make it back." Vyse promised her. "Trust me. And I think that she would be happy to see you again. Any parent would be, who thought their child was lost forever. And you know what? If she makes the best kabal skewers in the world, why not make a batch of your own to show her you still remember the things she taught you?" Fatima stared at him and Vyse shrugged. "You _do_ have the Khale now."

A faint but genuine smile came to her dark-skinned face at that, and Fatima nodded. "Yes, I do. Thank you, captain. If we make it back to Maramba..."

"You'll get your shore leave." Vyse reassured her, and she bid him good night. Vyse left the galley behind and went to the living quarters.

He was surprised to see Enrique waiting at the end of the hall, next to the door to the captain's cabin. Aika was there as well, which was less of a surprise, but even she seemed puzzled and on edge at Enrique being there. Vyse recalled the last thing Enrique had said to him in the morning after their training came to an abrupt end.

_Tell them the truth, Vyse. Or I will._

Well. Something had been stuck in Enrique's beret all day. It seemed that it was going to be resolved tonight, one way or the other. And Vyse was a Blue Rogue, which meant he didn't back down from greater dangers. Or from conflicts that he didn't understand, but might have a chance at resolving.

"Enrique." He said politely on reaching them. His smile was a little warmer when he looked to Aika. "Hey, Aika."

"Hey yourself." The redhead returned the greeting. She gave a brief sidewards glance to Enrique. "Enrique caught me down in engineering right before my shift ended, asked me to meet him here in the corridor. Hasn't told me _why_ yet."

"To correct a wrong that has stood for too long now." Enrique explained, his eyes glimmering darkly as he looked at Vyse. "I wanted Miss Fina to be here for this discussion as well, but I had trouble finding her. I will have to talk with her later. Or _you_ will, Miss Aika." Aika blinked and looked over to Vyse in obvious confusion, and all he could do was shrug.

Then Enrique opened the door to the captain's cabin and walked inside, going still three paces in. Following the exiled prince, Vyse saw what had captured his attention. Fina was sitting at the desk in the cabin, dressed in a pale green nightgown gifted to her by the Hortekans. The hem of it clung to her ankles as she used Cupil, in the form of a hairbrush, to smooth out her shoulder length tresses. Fina paused and looked up in surprise to see Enrique standing in the room, and glanced past him to raise an eyebrow at Vyse and Aika.

"I should have known." Enrique muttered darkly, slowly shaking his head. "My apologies for the _interruption,_ Miss Fina. I know it's inappropriate decorum for me to see you like this, I will try to make it brief. This won't take long." He gave Vyse another withering stare, then turned to Aika, and his face softened to a look of apology, of sorrow. "Please, Miss Aika. Please, sit. You will want to when you hear this."

"Should I…" Vyse started to say, motioning after Aika, and Enrique spun on him with a hiss, his aura flaring to life with crackling yellow light.

"You can _stand,_ you miserable cretin."

"Wow. Okay." Vyse held his hands palms up and backed away, but Aika and Fina both jerked up with furious looks.

"What the hell's wrong with you, Enrique?!" Aika snapped at him. Her brown eyes flared as she jumped between Enrique and Vyse, as if to shield him. Which, if Enrique were truly serious and cut loose with his magic that was running amok, she could in an instant.

Her presence calmed Enrique down enough that the blistering rage in his eyes went to a simmer and became traced with guilt. His yellow aura faded away, and Enrique released his held breath in a loud exhale.

"My apologies, ladies. This is...not easy for me to do. To bring up. My temper has gotten the better of me. I promise you, I will not harm Vyse. Even though he has wronged you." Enrique walked over to the desk and the mirror, nodding briefly to Fina. "Please. Sit."

To nobody's surprise but Enrique's, Aika and Fina sought each other out and sat side by side at the foot of the enormous bed that had once been meant for an admiral. Or for a prince. And now Vyse slept in it, as did his loves. They reached for the other's hand as they waited, looking up at Enrique in wariness.

The exiled prince swallowed, clenched and unclenched his hands once, and then started off. "I never had any doubts that the three of you were such good friends. How could you not be, with all the trials that you have gone through? And yet it was not until we stopped in Sailor's Isle that I began to wonder at what romantic bonds might exist. When Vyse called you 'My Aika,' you smiled and kissed him, and I thought, certainly, you were the love of his heart. Yet later on before Esperanza, I caught Miss Fina walking from this cabin with the bedsheets and a swooning smile and way about her. And I began to worry."

"Wait, I remember you mentioning that." Aika said in confusion. "Worry about what?"

"You both care for Vyse." Enrique declared flatly. "You might even claim to love him. Yet he is playing with your hearts and your affections, and being truthful to _neither_ of you. Just this morning I caught him kissing Miss Fina with such passion and heat that it stirred even my blood." He bowed his head. "This is what I did not wish to hurt you with, but to let him drag this on, to let him _toy with you both_ and being faithful to neither one of you? I am a Blue Rogue and took the Oath, and in every other respect, he has my faith and trust. But what he is doing to you two? That I cannot stand for as a chivalrous man, or as a man, _period." _Then he stood and waited, as Aika and Fina blinked rapidly.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Vyse said wearily, walking over and sitting at the desk. Honestly, how did Enrique not _see it?_

"You think that Vyse is cheating on me." Aika said flatly.

"With Miss Fina, yes." Enrique nodded, his voice pained. "He's made advances on both of you, and it is blackguardly behavior. Please, do not think less of each other. Do not let your friendship end because of Vyse's philandering ways. What you two women have is so precious, don't let him ruin it."

"I'm getting tired of explaining this." Vyse grumbled, setting a hand to his forehead with another aggrieved sigh and looking over to his two lovers. He rolled his eyes, and allowed himself to finally smile when Fina caught on and smirked herself.

"What we have _is_ precious, Enrique." Fina agreed, and with Enrique watching and making a squeaking noise of disbelief, the Silvite leaned over and set her hand behind Aika's head, pulling her in for a soft and languorous kiss full of love and attraction. Aika returned the kiss eagerly, humming in clear satisfaction as Fina's hand held her fast so she could not separate their lips.

Enrique gawked, and Vyse felt a sense of peace fall over him as his loves embraced, bound to one another as much as they were to him. It went on for perhaps ten seconds, long enough that Enrique blushed and started to turn away until he caught sight of Vyse in the corner of his eye and froze.

Vyse just smiled at him until Enrique jerked his head back and kept watching.

At length, the two young women finally separated, and Aika tapped Fina's nose with a fingertip, making the Silvite giggle. "It'd be hard for Vyse to cheat on me if I'm sleeping with her too, prince."

"What?" Enrique got out shakily.

Vyse sighed again, folded his arms as he sat at the desk, and waited. Enrique was an intelligent man. He should be able to piece it together. Still, watching the process would be either amusing, or worthy of a groan.

Enrique looked back to Vyse. Then he looked to Aika and Fina. Then back again.

"You mean that you and Vyse…" He started, pointing to Aika.

"Yes." The redhead told him simply, and Enrique's finger moved to Fina.

"And _you_ and Vyse…"

"Yes." Fina said, her smile never fading. It even widened as his other hand came up, and he pointed at both of the young women.

"And you both…" Enrique whispered incredulously, stopping when the girls held up their hands, fingers interlaced together. "But…How?" He looked back at Vyse. The Blue Rogue captain rolled his eyes.

"Do you really think I would hurt them?" Vyse asked him sadly. "I understand why you were so upset earlier, but honestly, Enrique."

"You didn't have to be." Fina reassured the prince.

"I think we broke him." Aika remarked, raising one leg up and stretching forward to unlace her boots.

"You will if you keep that up." Vyse grinned. Aika always had such flexibility, especially with her legs. She made the act of removing her shoes a burlesque.

Enrique stepped away, shaking his head and _shaken,_ shaken to the core of himself. "All three of you. Together." And Vyse held his hand out, palm up and open, thinking and projecting _Now you understand._

"How long?" Enrique asked, pacing in a furious, slow circle, and making the strangest gesture at them, a lopsided thing that tried to gesture at all of them and failed to reach any of them. "Were you always...in all the time I knew you…"

"Not long before we met you." Fina said, picking up the slack when she caught on that Vyse just wanted the day to be _over_ and Aika seemed more than happy just pulling her boots off. "Well, _consummated_ anyways." She blushed at the memory of those wonderful first three nights, and Vyse's thoughts drifted back to them as well, the first night when Aika unraveled beneath his hands and his body and she wept happily in his arms after while he buried his blurry eyes into her hair. The second night when Fina revealed how deep still waters ran and showed the reverse of her shy nature as it went from him taking her to _her_ taking _him,_ and the third…

"It's love, Enrique." Fina said with a longing sigh. "We love who we love. We are together, three people made whole. Just because you've never heard of it or considered it doesn't make it wrong. It's just different."

Enrique swallowed and nodded at that. "And you're all happy with how this works."

It warmed Vyse's heart when he realized that he and both of his loves had nodded their heads at the exact same time.

The prince shook his head again, then pressed his right arm across his chest and bowed to Vyse. A far deeper bow than usual.

"Vyse, I stand dishonored. I impugned your honor wrongly. I thought you to be a villain of low morality in your romantic dealings. I stand corrected and chastened, and…"

"Oh, shut up." Vyse got up to his feet and closed in, hugging Enrique tightly to make him stop talking. "You're forgiven, but _please_ lay off the formality with us. We're off duty, and you're more than a crewmember. You're our friend."

"After everything I said? After everything I've done, thinking the worst of you?" Enrique croaked.

"You did it because you _cared about Aika and Fina._ You were wrong, incredibly so, but your heart was in the right place." Vyse reassured him, and found that his smile came easily again. "I love them with the whole of my heart, Enrique. I would tear it out before hurting them. You can do whatever you have to if it's to protect them. I will _never_ get angry at you for looking out for them. And besides, all you did was yell at me a little, make some faces, and bruise my wrist." He couldn't stop the chuckle. "Aika's done a lot worse over the years."

"Has she?" Enrique blinked.

"Story for another night, I think." Aika hummed. "I'm glad you know now, Enrique. I don't go running around the ship yelling about our relationship to everyone, but...Vyse is right. You're one of our closest friends. You deserve to know that we're together, and we're happy about it."

"I just wish I'd known sooner." Enrique confessed. "It would have saved me some very awkward conversations. Not to mention, I'll never win that bet now."

"Bet?" Vyse backed off a step and blinked. "What bet?"

"You didn't know?" Enrique realized. "Mistress Kalifa has been running a betting pool on which of your dear ladies you are actually romantically involved with. I had wagered 200 gold pieces on you and Aika being lovers."

Vyse found he had no immediate response to that bit of news, and settled on staring blankly. Aika was far less restrained, and laughed loudly and openly, which prompted Fina to giggle and hide it behind her hand.

"And you can't change your bet?" Vyse asked, when he found his voice again.

A rueful Enrique shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Once a bet is made and put into Kalifa's ledger, it is considered final. She _does_ allow for the placing of new bets, however. Still, now that I know the truth, I can hardly place a bid on the correct answer." The prince shrugged. "It wouldn't be sporting."

Vyse tensed up when he heard Aika draw in a breath sharply in a particular fashion. That particular sound meant nothing good; it always meant that she'd gotten an _idea_ in her head. Sometimes, those crazy ideas worked out well. More often than not, though, they prompted a great deal more explosions and unnecessary chaos.

The redhead bounced in place, flashing her teeth as she worked it out. "Well, Enrique, since you're losing money on the bet anyways...how do you feel about changing up the odds some and screwing with everyone else?" Enrique looked confused until Aika started explaining it, and then he was smiling at the _possibilities._ Imperfectly, of course. There was something about the deception, innocent as it was, which still chafed at his royal sensibilities.

Enrique agreed to the plan, and seemed ready to keep talking about it until Fina leaned behind Aika and started to undo the pigtails that her red hair was bound up in. The moment that her hair started to become unbound, Enrique's face reddened and he looked away before stuttering out an apology for intruding into 'their' evening and making his way out of the captain's cabin, closing the door behind him with a solid click. Fina looked confused.

"What was _that_ about?" She asked Vyse and Aika. It was Aika who answered.

"It's an older tradition, and a lot of people don't follow it anymore, but. In some places in Mid-Ocean and especially in Valua, the act of letting down a woman's hair and seeing it down is considered _very_ intimate. Like, husband and wife intimate."

Fina blushed even brighter at that, but she didn't stop helping Aika get ready for bed. Vyse filed it away for review later, and started removing his uniform as well.

"Tomorrow's going to be interesting, isn't it Aika?" He asked, when they were all dressed for bed and slid in under the covers. The girls shoved Vyse into the middle and snuggled up on either side of him, and Aika hummed cheerfully as they slowly warmed the sheets up with their combined body heat.

"Oh, Vyse. You have _no idea."_

* * *

_Delphinus, Galley_

_177 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

The plan started early, when Vyse and Enrique met up for breakfast the next day. Neither one of the girls were with them, and most of the other sailors aboard paid the duo little mind. Enrique was seen as one of Vyse's most trusted associates, and a voice of reason and sensibility that the crew largely got along with. Even Khazim, who presumably would have the most reason to hate Enrique, had warmed up once word got to him that Enrique had argued against the sacking of Nasrad, had tried to prevent it, and then been dismissed when he protested the brutality of it after the fact. They picked up their trays, said their greetings to Miss Polly who was working the stove to plate up fresh hashbrowns, and took their meal of bacon, oatmeal, Ixa'takan low-alcoholic garpa juice, and the aforementioned fried potatoes off to what had quickly been set aside as the _captain's table_ to enjoy it. Everyone else sitting and breaking their fast was still too sleepy and too focused on their own forthcoming days (Or the rest in lieu of, for the night crew) to pay them much attention or pester them with questions. Vyse glanced up from his meal only briefly to make a sweep of the room's occupants, watching Kalifa off in the back corner of the galley as she sipped from a thermos of what was likely her favored tea blend and went over something in a leatherbound journal.

Then Fina came in, grabbing her usual thermos of coffee from Polly and a piece of fruit before sauntering over and plopping next to Enrique and across from Vyse. The Silvite smiled at him, and Vyse smiled back.

"You're looking cheerful this morning." He ventured.

"Shouldn't I be?" Fina asked innocently, reaching across the table and grabbing a slice of bacon that he hadn't gotten to yet. She bit the end off and chewed at it for a bit before swallowing. And then she raised her voice loud enough so that Don and Hans and Osman over at the next table could hear her. "Say, Vyse. How would you feel about having dinner with me tonight?"

"Oh? Well, I - I suppose that could be really wonderful." He answered, playing his part to the best of his acting abilities.

"I meant, _just_ with me." Fina added, fluttering her eyes at him. Vyse had to force himself not to speak too soon, and stiffened himself into a straight posture as he looked back at her.

_Don't look at everyone else, don't look at everyone else, yes they're staring at you DON'T LOOK AT THEM_

"I...certainly. If you want to."

"I do." Fina purred, popping the rest of her stolen bacon into her mouth. She swallowed it down, followed it up with a sip of her coffee, then got up from the table, walked around, and gave him a gentle peck on the side of his cheek. "My room. Tonight, half past the fifth bell."

Forcing a blush to his cheek from something so simple as a kiss to it was easy when Vyse could feel the eyes of over a dozen crewmembers staring at him like he'd grown a second head.

"I'll be there." He got out, stunned that his voice seemed hoarse. Well, that was a surprise. The smile Fina gave him was blinding in its joy, and she sauntered out of the galley, presumably to carry out her usual duties while daydreaming about her 'date' that evening.

As Vyse stood a few minutes later, Enrique excused himself and went walking in the direction of Kalifa. Vyse walked for the main doorway that would take him to the stairs that led up to the bridge.

He tried not to pay attention to the hushed whispers that he left in his wake.

* * *

_Midday_

Lunchtime was always busier than breakfast, and the crowd gathered when Vyse and Enrique sat for their midday meal was already chatting away. Vyse tried not to look at them again, but Enrique did.

"They're talking about me, aren't they?" Vyse asked quietly.

"Probably." Enrique tempered his hopes. "They do keep looking in our direction and _no, stop it don't start smiling now you smug bastard…"_ Vyse clenched his jaw and tried to think of awful things to stop the natural impulse, and Enrique sighed and leaned his face forward into his hand. "Moons, how is this my life now? You see what you've done to me, you and those two girls?"

"Admit it, you're having _fun_ for a change." Vyse snorted.

"Just don't _ruin it_ Vyse. Please."

"Trying not to." Vyse shrugged and tore off a bite of bread from his small loaf, dipping it to soak in his stew. "But trying not to pay attention to everyone else when they're all watching you is harder than it sounds."

_"Try."_ Enrique impressed on him. "If I'm to be party in this _deception_ then I will not have it ruined because you can't keep it together."

"That's fair." Vyse conceded. As he popped the lump of now soggy bread in his mouth and started chewing, the chatter in the galley picked up in volume. The cause didn't become apparent until Aika suddenly manifested at their table, perky and bouncy, and with a grin that she was as quick to as a punch on most days.

"Hey, Vyse." Aika said brightly.

"Hey, Aika." Vyse grunted back, looking down at his meal and dipping another piece of bread. The chattering subtly lowered in volume, and Vyse could feel even more stares burning into him.

"Um, Vyse?"

"Yeah? You need something? Something wrong with the ship?"

"Well, the ship's fine." Aika said, a little less steady than before. "I just, um. How do I look today?"

_Oh, damnit Aika, what kind of a loaded question is that?_

He forced himself to look up, and was instantly stunned. Somehow, Aika's hair wasn't in its usual fashion. The tightly bound twin pigtails that jutted up and out from her head were missing, and in its place was a delicately coiffed braid of her blazing red hair that hung down to her breasts. And she was _playing with it_ after having pulled it over her shoulder. And biting her lip as she watched him, waiting for an answer.

Enrique made a stiff noise that might have been a groan if he'd allowed it to be uttered. Vyse did his level best to remember that this was a _game_ they were playing, that she was doing this for their own entertainment and to watch the rest of the crew fall over themselves in a mad scramble of gossip and wilder betting. But she wasn't playing fair.

She knew he loved her hair, loved it when she wore it long. Damnit.

"You look very pretty, Aika." He told her honestly, and the whispers dropped to almost nothing around them. "But I thought you couldn't wear your hair down like that when you were working."

"Lapen and Hans have their engineering crews up to speed finally. I'm working on the Moonstone Cannon today, and there's no risk of getting my hair caught in a gear while I'm working with _that."_ She explained. There was a flash of indecision. Nerves. "I...you really think I look good like this?"

"You always look good to me." Vyse told her honestly, and immediately winced. Damnit, damnit, _damnit. _That wasn't part of the game, he could hear the whispers picking up speed again.

It was hard to feel bad about it when she looked at him with such relief after an honest confession.

"Well, good." Aika said cheerfully, and stood back up. Then she clasped her hands together in front of her, flipped her braid back over her shoulder, and swayed gently from side to side so her hair swung like a hypnotic pendulum behind her. "Say Vyse, I feel like it's been forever since we just _relaxed_ together. Why don't you come up to my cabin tonight? We can...catch up." She suggested.

"Uh-huh." Vyse blinked, his eyes moving in time with her braided red hair, watching it flicker back and forth behind her. Damnit, how had she gotten her hair to look like that? Had Fina helped her? Of course Fina would have helped her, they were to _kill him_ at this rate.

"You should bring dinner."

"Uh-huh." He couldn't look away, he should be _looking away._

"Half past five? I get off work at five bells, and that would give me time to freshen up."

"Uh-huh."

The whispers had gone cold. Aika leaned down over the table and stopped swaying, staring him in the face until he remembered to blink.

"My eyes are up here, Vyse." She chuckled, and another honest blush heated his cheeks.

"Sorry."

"It's all right. I don't mind if you look." Aika winked at him, and then she traced his jaw with a fingertip before sliding it down towards the hollow of his throat. The lump he tried to swallow down as she teased him didn't quite make it all the way.

She stood up and _stretched,_ and Vyse bit the inside of his cheek to keep from making a noise that nobody else had any business hearing him make.

"Don't be late." She said in a teasing voice, and went strolling off. Vyse watched her go for a few seconds and just barely remembered to push his tray out of the way before he laid his arms on the table and let his head drop down into them.

As the whispers picked up in volume and stopped being _whispers,_ Vyse felt Enrique lean over the table to speak softly in his ear so no one would overhear them.

"How do you keep up with the both of them, Vyse? Where do you find the stamina?"

"I honestly don't know." Vyse mumbled into his arms. Enrique made a hum that made him sound _way_ too pleased with himself as he pulled back, and then the prince raised his voice for the benefit of everyone else still watching them.

"Vyse, do you realize you just made dates with _both_ Miss Aika and Miss Fina tonight?"

Vyse buried his face into his arms even more, not sure whether to grin like a maniac or moan like a condemned man.

_This is a game. This is a game, this is a game this is a game!_

One he was losing.

* * *

_Evening_

_Galley_

Vyse knew the part he was supposed to play. He knew that it was all according to Aika's deviously orchestrated plan. The gossip about his 'meetings' at breakfast and lunch had blazed through the ship like wildfire, as Enrique later informed him, and when he went to dinner at five bells, he was amused to find Fatima already packing a basket of wrapped platters and bowls for his 'evening out' and she asked him who he was going to see.

Putting on his best panicked face, Vyse quickly shook his head and told her that he wasn't seeing _anyone_ and could he please have a tray for his own dinner. The shock on the Esperanzan woman's face was immediate and visceral, though she did as he asked. Less than ten seconds after she finished serving him, she whispered to the next person in line after him, which turned out to be Pinta, one of the biggest gossips aboard. The boy didn't even grab his dinner after that, he just took off like a shot to spread the word.

Vyse sat at his usual table and ate _very_ slowly, trying to look the part of a miserably conflicted fellow who'd been offered two ships full of wealth and could only make off with one. Thank the Moons he would never have to _choose_ between Aika and Fina for real. Even thinking about it made his heart hurt.

By the time Enrique joined him at his table at half past, the appointed time for when Fina was 'expecting' him to come to her cabin and when Aika 'expected' him in her own, the dinner crowd was a little larger than usual. Even people who would normally be on duty were stopping by, claiming that they only wanted to 'get a little snack before getting started' and then conveniently stuck around. They didn't sit at a table, they weren't that willing to test their captain's nerves, but they were definitely clustered in the direction of the doors as they stood around and made not so furtive glances in his direction.

Gossip traveled faster than the _Delphinus_ and he was apparently the juiciest source of it to be had.

By the time the clock hit six bells, the galley was full to bursting, and Vyse made Enrique call up to the bridge and down to engineering to make sure that the ship-critical operations were unaffected. Enrique informed him that Lawrence was at the helm and keeping the ship in an idling pattern for the evening, the exterior hatches were all closed and locked from the inside, Domingo was up on the lookout tower, and Lapen was on duty in engineering with all systems nominal. For a ship that wasn't moving, that covered the bases. To Vyse's regret, he couldn't order everyone to leave. And he couldn't leave himself, since this needed to happen in front of witnesses. He just didn't expect it to happen in front of _this many._

At shortly after six bells, Aika and Fina walked into the galley side by side, the both of them looking irritated, and the _room went dead silent._ Aika still had her hair in its braid, and Fina had changed from her usual Silvite dress to one that was of Ixa'takan manufacture, soft and green with a neckline that went up to her throat when buttoned and a hemline that parted at the knees and sloped down to her calves. Not a dress to be running in, especially when she was storming in sandals, and so she moved at just a hair shy of that pace.

Vyse turned and stared at them, trying for a Looper in the foglights look and probably not getting close enough. Not when he was stuck glancing between Fina in that dress that shimmered around her and Aika with her hair looking perfect, but it seemed to suffice, because Vyse got the distinct impression that everyone else was too busy staring at the _irate and put-out women storming towards him_ to pay much attention to his face.

"Vyse!" They both said at the same time, and then startled and looked at each other, as if recognizing that they weren't the only one there who'd come to speak with him.

Vyse wisely kept his mouth shut, praying that they would figure out how this was all supposed to work.

"Oh, hey Fina." Aika said, paused, then added as an afterthought, "Nice dress."

"Hello, Aika." Fina greeted the other woman. "I like what you've done with your hair."

Aika patted the elaborate braid, still as perfect as it'd been at lunch. "A girl oughta look her best every so often." She explained haughtily. "How's a guy supposed to know she's interested otherwise?"

Oh, this wasn't just _gossip,_ Vyse realized. This was full-on, four-star dinner theater and they _really_ should've sold tickets. Not like there were many crewmembers who could afford them, Vyse imagined that most of the crew were placing their Kalifa-sponsored bets with their _future wages._

"How indeed." Fina smiled back, baring her teeth, before turning away from Aika in outright dismissal. "Vyse, I've been _waiting_ for you up in my room. You didn't _forget_ about our date, did you?"

"Woah. Woah, woah, _hold up_ there, Princess." Aika cut in, taking a step towards Vyse in possessive fury. "Vyse had a date with _me_ tonight!"

"What?!" Fina exclaimed, gasping loudly. Vyse wondered at her ability to fake that much upset, but the Silvite pressed on before he could dive too deeply into it. "No, he - you're lying! He'd never be with you, not when he has me! Not after the kiss we shared yesterday morning!"

Audible gasps broke out, shattering the quiet. Vyse flinched and shut his eyes.

"Oh, _one kiss_ and suddenly you think he's going to fall at your feet." Aika snapped sarcastically. "Vyse is all man, you wouldn't know what to _do_ with him. I bet you wouldn't even know how to kiss him properly, someone as naive as you."

Fina puffed her cheeks out and stomped her foot. "Oh, I'll show _you_ naive, Aika!" And then Vyse snapped his eyes open when he felt warm hands press against the side and the back of his head, thumbs stroking his earlobes.

His eyes shot wide. _Not in the script, not in the script NOT IN THE SCRIPT!_

Then Fina was leaning down and into him, pushing him awkwardly into the table as she full-on _kissed him_ in front of every member of the crew, who immediately went wild with hooting and whoops and cheers.

It was tender and warm and inviting, and when she finished and pulled back, he almost reached for her to keep it going. He stopped himself at the last moment, gaping and wondering where in the _Hell_ that had come from.

Then Fina smirked, set a hand to her hip and stepped back. "What do you think of that, then?"

Aika hissed between her teeth. "You call that a kiss? Oh, _honey._ Let me show you." Then she spun Vyse around so his legs were free and his back was fully against the table, and climbed into his lap. Her brown eyes smouldered like embers, and he caught the faintest edge of a red glow behind them as her magic stirred in tune with her heart. He leaned back away from her, feeling the warm weight of her over his legs and his pelvis, and she tangled a hand into his messy locks and leaned in, not breaking her eyes away from his face.

_"This_ is a proper kiss." Aika hummed. She drove her tongue into his mouth, making him moan before they were blasted by the noise of an entire roomful of people going _crazy._ Pinned down, held in place and trapped (And not exactly in a state of mind to resist it), Vyse gave in and just _enjoyed it. _Enjoyed being kissed by them both in the open.

Uncounted seconds later, Aika finally pulled away, gasping for air, and the noise around them didn't let up until Aika smiled victoriously and crawled off of him, staring down Fina.

"Told you, Princess. He couldn't _possibly_ be serious about you. Did he even _ask you out_ or did you force it on him and he was too polite to say no?"

Fina made a face. "Well, that - I mean, he...Well, what about you?!" She blustered. "Did Vyse ask you out or did you just _tell him_ it was going to happen, you crazy Ixa'ness manhunter?"

And then Aika was making a face as she tried to protest it, and failed to. So the redhead, _finally_ back to script, turned and stared down Vyse. "I think it's time we settled this, Vyse. Go ahead and tell her that you and I have a bond that she'll never understand!"

"Forget her, Vyse." Fina chimed in, sidling in next to Aika and hip-bumping her away with a slight glare before turning those piercing blue eyes of hers onto him. "Tell her that I'm the one you're destined to be with. I have been ever since you rescued me from the clutches of Valua!" And everyone fell silent, Vyse could see the room full of people leaning in, _waiting_ for him to make his choice, to settle the bet.

_Remember the script, remember the script. Don't ruin this, don't say anything, DON'T._

Clamping his mouth shut, Vyse looked between them twice over, then stood up and _ran_ for the doors. With twin shouts of, "Vyse!" coming from his loves, he bailed out of the galley and dashed towards the captain's cabin. It didn't take him nearly as long as he thought it would; Moons bless adrenaline, he supposed. Then he was in the cabin, with the door closed behind him, and letting his racing heart slowly pace back to its resting speed as the weight of everything they'd done sank in. He ended up taking two steps to his left and sank to the floor, laughing softly and burying his head into his knees.

_Holy hell, my love life is entertainment for everyone on board this ship._

That thought was immediately followed by, _Nobody ever mentioned kissing in the plan. Since when did those two decide that they were going to be kissing me in front of the Moons and everyone!?_

Which, naturally, was the perfect time for said two girls to come charging into the cabin, making Vyse _very_ glad that the door swung open on the other side of the frame. Getting his face smashed in would be the _perfect_ way to end this wringer of a day.

They came inside, looked around, and closed the door behind them before finally seeing him sitting on the other side of it. "Vyse!"

"Kissing wasn't a part of the plan." He said dully. "You changed the plan."

Aika and Fina looked at each other for a bit, and then Aika folded her arms. "What, you didn't like it?"

There was no way _not_ to laugh at that. "Took me by surprise."

"Yes. We know." Fina nodded. "Vyse, we love you, but you're a _terrible_ liar. Actually, that might be one of the reasons why we love you."

"If you'd known what was coming, would you have been able to react the way you needed to to sell the ruse?" Aika asked him. Vyse cocked his head to the side, considered it, and then shrugged and surrendered to their wisdom. "That's why."

"Just tell me we don't have to do anything else like that for a while." He told them weakly.

"Probably not." Aika reassured him, and moved to sit down beside him. "Scoot over." He did so, and Aika and Fina sat down on either side of him. He reached for their hands on an impulse, and they let him take theirs. "It felt good, though."

"What did?" He asked.

"Kissing you in the open like that." The redhead admitted, tipping her head back and resting it back against the wall. "It felt right."

"Like we didn't have to hide it." Fina added softly.

Vyse held them tighter. "I'm not ashamed of us. I'm not ashamed of either of you. You know that, right?"

Fina laughed and leaned her head into his shoulder. "Yes. We know that."

"So the next time you want to kiss me, kiss me." He blinked. "Or kiss each other." Fina lifted her head up, and Aika turned to stare at him as well. Vyse smiled, looking between them. "I'm serious. I don't care what anyone says. Blue Rogues Fly Free."

"Huh." Aika hummed. "Never thought of using the Code like that."

"The Code's got to change, then." Vyse said. "I've been working on it."

"Is it finished?"

"Nowhere near yet." Vyse pulled them back in tight to his sides, and their outer arms crossed over his stomach. "But I've got the start."

"Can we hear it?" Fina asked him.

Vyse breathed in, closed his eyes, and felt it lift up from his mind and his heart. _"If you Would be Free, Live to Make Others Free."_

Aika made a considering noise, and their clasped hands over his stomach tightened. "Ixa'taka." The redhead said in wonder.

"Ixa'taka." Vyse nodded. "And everywhere else."

The girls didn't say anything for a few moments afterwards, but Fina finally found the right answer. "You really are going to change the world, My Pirate."

_We all will,_ he thought and failed to vocalize.

A knock at the door broke the cuddle-filled moment, and Vyse sighed. "I'd like to be alone, so unless the ship's in danger or under attack, leave off!"

_"It's just me, Vyse." _Enrique's muffled voice came through the door.

"Oh. We did want to hear how everyone else took our performance, Vyse." Aika mentioned.

Vyse rolled his eyes. "Fine. ENRIQUE! You can come in!"

The door opened parways, just a crack, not enough for Enrique to see very far. Then it paused. "Are you decent?" The exiled prince asked hesitantly.

"Oh, for..._Yes,_ Enrique." Vyse grunted. The door swung open the rest of the way, and then Enrique stepped in with Fatima's foregone basket of food in his hand. He took in the sight of them huddled together on the floor, their backs to the wall, and smiled uneasily.

"I thought Miss Aika and Miss Fina might like something to nibble as they missed dinner. And seeing as Fatima was kind enough to prepare a basket, it seemed a shame to let it go to waste." He set it down next to Aika and stepped back. "I think you all carried off that performance quite spectacularly. You had them stirred up at breakfast and lunch, but what you three did just now?" Enrique had to shake his head. "Everyone rushed Kalifa right to place new wagers after Vyse went running out with the two of you hot on his heels."

"How did the odds get changed?"

"I'll have the answer for you tomorrow. After the dust settles." Enrique said. "I suspect that it'll be the talk of the ship for days. Should do wonders for morale. How do you plan to follow it up?"

"I don't." Vyse told him flatly. "Right now, I think we've done enough. Let them gossip and waste their money. And you did your part?"

"I put 300 gold on Fina, yes." Enrique hummed. "I'm just throwing my money away now."

"You gave it to me, though, so technically it's _my_ money." Vyse reminded him cheerfully, and Enrique rolled his eyes.

"That line again. If there's nothing else you three need, I think I shall retire for the evening. This level of deception, even if done for harmless reasons, is draining on me."

"Enrique?" Aika said as he started to turn. He looked down at her, and the redhead bit her lip. "Thank you. Thank you for being our friend. For saving us. For _everything."_

Enrique's eyes softened. "A pleasure." He replied, and doffed his beret in salute. "My sword, and my loyalty are yours."

He stepped back out and closed the door behind him, leaving the three of them sitting with a basket of food as the light of the sunset poured through the reinforced windows opposite of them.

Neither girl went to move from their spot.

"Aren't you two hungry?" Vyse wondered. "Don't you want to eat?"

Fina pressed the side of her head over his heart, listening to his heartbeat. Aika leaned on his shoulder and lifted her hand to cup the back of the Silvite's head.

"In a bit." Aika whispered back. They seemed comfortable resting where they were. Vyse was more than happy to let them be. They deserved every moment of happiness that they could take.


	31. Journey From The West

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Thirty-One: Journey From The West**

_The Divine Empire of Yafutoma, Yafutoma City, The Royal Palace_

_180 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

She had been named Moegi Tokugawa, and she was the princess of the Empire beneath the Blue Moon. Moegi woke with the first rays of sunrise, breathing in deeply as she cracked her eyes open and took stock of her surroundings. A bedroom two sizes larger than the houses possessed by most commoners greeted her sight, with the framed paper sliding doors partially opened and potted plants scattered around the room. The riot of greenery and bright flowers, some which only blossomed under moonlight, often brought her comfort when she had been younger.

This morning, Moegi stared at them all with empty eyes as she pushed the plush blankets back and rose up from her rest. Her maids would be by soon, she knew, which limited her time. Moegi threw on the simplest robe she had to hide her nightgown and went to her chamber pot, finishing quickly.

Once her hands were clean, she then walked to her bedroom's ornate desk. It had been carved from a single piece of thick Yafutoman spruce that had grown for 300 years before being cut down on the slopes of Mount Kazai. From its drawers, she drew out a stand, a box of incense sticks, and a folded blue obi, carefully and lovingly preserved.

It was the work of seconds to light the stick and set it in the stand, and she breathed in the crisp scent of the fumes, using it to wake up and to center herself. With the obi set in front of her and centered in her mind's eye, the princess clapped her hands together loudly to summon the ancestral spirits to her presence. She willed her energy and her prayers into that obi, and to the person it belonged to. A person whose name she was no longer allowed to speak in her father's presence, or in the Court.

But nobody, not even her father the Emperor, could forbid Moegi for praying for the welfare of her brother, or for whispering his name in the dark.

"Keep Daigo safe for one more day." She whispered to the spirits who served the divine wind, the mighty guardian born from the heart of the Blue Moon's grace. "Give swiftness to his steps. Keep the breath of life in his lungs. May he always be protected."

Moegi reached for the small penknife she kept in her desk for opening letters, brought it up to her head, and carefully sliced off three strands of her long and lustrous black hair. She held them to the smoldering stick of incense until they caught fire and burned quickly, dropping the offering only when the fire came to her fingertips. Then she extinguished the incense, tucked everything back away, and went over to open up the doors that led to the balcony overlooking the royal pond surrounding the palace.

Long-necked swans swam gently through the waters while squat little ducks splashed and cleaned themselves nearby, chirping as their wake disturbed the lily pads and sent the _koi_ scattering beneath the surface.

Moegi Tokugawa was the princess of the Empire of Yafutoma. She lived in luxury, wanting for nothing save for her brother and the freedom to live her life for herself. She acknowledged it as an expensively decorated cage.

The palace, expensively decorated or not, was a cage all the same.

* * *

Moegi had never been expected to rule. It had been the same with her mother. The late Empress had held no real political power, and had instead held the duties of overseeing the royal household and attending to planning the festivals for the people of Yafutoma. They lived peacefully in the skies under the blue moon, sailing and fishing and crafting and celebrating their good fortune. Growing up, her days had been filled with lessons on flower arranging, calligraphy, numbers and letters and history. There were dance lessons in the place of martial training that her br - that other royal family members had received, and she was skilled at playing the shamisen. At least, skilled enough that the tutors paid to fawn over her said that she was marvelous, but Moegi knew well enough to understand that they were probably lying about it.

One constant over the past three years had been the steady reminders of her coming of age at 21, and how her formalized engagement would be concluded then with the wedding ceremony. If her servants were to be believed, there were many eagerly looking forward to it. The Emperor was an old man now and had a face full of wrinkles and shock white hair, and had no heir set to inherit. Her fiancee would secure the bloodline and embed in her a child, and it was her _duty_ to bear a son to carry on the Tokugawa dynasty.

She was sitting in the royal library, a tea service nearby left untouched and growing cold as she went over the historical scrolls taken from the archives. Moegi found solace and inspiration in the old stories, not in the ancient creation myths or in the long and rather boring history of her dynasty or the other three that had come before the years of the Tokugawa's reign. The Yafutoman perspective was that peace and boredom were good, and troubled times were a curse to be avoided. Yafutomans were homogenous in appearance and culture and language, staying within the boundaries of expected behavior. _May you live in interesting times_ was an old axiom that predated the oldest of the recorded dynasties, and it still applied.

Since Daigo had been exiled and Moegi's fate had been thrown into the hands of others, though, she had found solace in more recent history from 200 years ago. Back then, all of Yafutoma had been thrown into chaos because of the actions of a man who claimed to come from the West. A man whose name had ever since carried the stain of a curse, so much so that the language he spoke was still taught in the higher schools as a warning.

_Daqat_ had come from the West, and he had brought woe and misfortune to Yafutoma and sailed off with the second princess of the Tokugawa's line, kidnapped the night before her wedding. He had also made off with her dowry and most of the food prepared and set aside for the wedding feast, and while there was nothing in the primary accounts to support the claim, it was common legend that _Daqat, _famous for always wearing an oddly shaped black hat, had laughed so loudly that he'd been heard clearly as he and his crew flew away. That he'd held the Princess Kikue in his arms like some common teahouse painted girl. One spot where the legends differed, Moegi had noticed, was that the commoners who spoke of it sighed wistfully, claiming that she had fallen into his arms willingly, seduced by his foreigner's wiles and ways. The nobility always saw _Daqat_ as the unredeemable villain and thief and kidnapper who had been shown hospitality and repaid it with spite.

"Really, your highness. You've let your tea run cold again." Moegi blinked and looked up from her scroll, finally noticing that she wasn't alone in the room. So engrossed in her reading, she'd failed to sense the approach of a higher-ranked house matron with black and gray-streaked hair tied back in a bun, held in place by steel needles. The old woman clicked her tongue once in disapproval and picked up the discarded tea service. "I will attend to this. Why aren't you outside? It's a lovely day, and you do so love to walk by the gardens."

"I am searching for answers." Moegi told her, gently rolling the ancient vellum back up and sliding it into the waterproof tube it had been stored in. Much was spoken of by the record-keepers of the time about _Daqat_, but little to no attention was paid to Princess Kikue. She was so important to the story about the thief who came from the west on his strange airship and then sailed away with a princess and all the wealth meant to pay for her. None of the historians of the day ever thought that Kikue had been important enough to know as a person.

The matron laughed at her response, already walking towards the doors. "You must be our resident expert on the people from the West at this point." The woman teased her. "Though I am certain there are better hobbies than learning their tongue or studying the actions taken by the accursed Western Thief. I'm sure that Lord Muraji would find you more appealing if you spent more time studying the arts - dance, perhaps."

"What _Muraji_ wants from his wife may not be what he gets." Moegi snapped back at the woman bitterly. The matron paused, set the tea tray down on a small end table by the doors leading out of the library and turned back around. She didn't draw near to Moegi, or offer to touch her, for such were actions that even a matron did not have the standing for. There was quiet sympathy in her eyes, though.

"I know that Lord Kangan's son may not be...what you might have hoped for in a husband, my lady." The older woman started out carefully. "But your father is not a young man, and Yafutoma will stand or fall on the strength of the bloodline. He is the best possible match, and he will not rule for long after you bear him a son. The line of Tokugawa must continue through you, Princess Moegi." The matron looked down at the floor and bit her lip. "There is no one else who can bring prosperity to the Tokugawa dynasty."

_Not anymore,_ Moegi thought bitterly. She wanted to scream and tear at her hair, and yet she knew it would change nothing. It would do nothing to help. Her life had been written out for her since she was born, but at least before, there had been a chance that she might marry for something close to love. When there had been another to take the throne, and she had just been the _spare._

It was all gone now, and the Empire stood on foundations that were burned to ashes.

Shouting and the sound of running footsteps out in the hallways of the palace made Moegi and the matron both turn and stare in wonder and worry. There wasn't the clanking of armor plates or the shifting of spears and swords bouncing, however.

"What in the devil is going on out there?" The matron murmured. A presence stopped in front of the library doors and threw them open, and a panting, sweating palace messenger glanced in, relieved when he set eyes on the princess.

"Oh, thank the moon, your highness! The Emperor has requested your presence in the main audience chamber, straight away!"

"My father? Why?" Moegi frowned. "I was not aware we had visiting noble dignitaries due to arrive today."

The messenger shook his head. "No, your highness. Not Yafutoman nobility. _Westerners._ There are _Westerners_ being escorted to the royal palace by his majesty's spearmen as we speak. They sailed in this morning and docked at the harbor in a great ship of iron, colored blue and silver! The patrol captain on duty couldn't understand them at all, and we are in desperate need of a translator. Your father has asked for you specifically for that purpose. Please, your highness." The messenger fell to his knees and kowtowed to her, not a full forehead to the floor kowtow, but enough to make it known that it was his wish as well. "There is nobody else alive who has studied the Westerner's ways from 200 years before more than you. You are the only hope we have in avoiding an incident."

"An...incident." Moegi repeated, rising up from her chair and staring at the man. "You think that these Westerners mean us harm?"

"It is all that anyone can talk about, princess. How large their ship is. How dangerous it must be. The size of their cannons alone has set tongues to wagging." He looked up, fear in his eyes. "There are still others aboard the ship, while four of them are being brought to the palace. If they do not return…"

Fear was a powerful motivator for most people, but Moegi's heart thrummed with something even stronger as she smoothed out her dress and tucked her hands back inside the over-large mufflers sewn on to her royal dress. Excitement.

_May you live in interesting times,_ the ancient Yafutoman curse went. To a people who thrived on peace and stability and things never changing, 'interesting' forever meant dangerous and harmful.

"Take me to my father." Moegi said, her face set and determined.

She was living in interesting times at last, and the princess finally felt like she was alive.

* * *

_The Emperor's Audience Chamber_

Emperor Mikado Tokugawa was an austere man. He had already been old when he assumed the throne, and he'd gotten older since. White hair and wrinkles had slowed him down, but it hadn't diminished his imposing presence. He was already sitting on the throne when Moegi glided into the room, and inclined his head slightly in greeting as she took her place at his side. Down below at the base of the steps that led to them, her father's chief advisor Kangan Kurowei and his son _Muraji_ held a united front. Against what, Moegi had _no_ idea.

"Moegi." Her father said. "We have been waiting for you."

"I came as soon as I received your message, father."

"Perhaps you would have come sooner if you were in a part of the palace that you were _expected_ to be in." Kangan snidely remarked, rolling his mustache as he did. His son, a terrible excuse for a man, covered his mouth with his sleeve and snickered hard enough to almost make his tall hat slip off of him.

The Emperor tapped his armrest twice for silence. "Enough, Kangan." He said coolly. "You are my chief advisor, but if my daughter was not so interested in the study of the West and in _Daqat,_ there would be nobody able to communicate effectively with these...visitors. You yourself, as I recall, once voiced three years prior to this that it was a waste of resources to educate our people in the tongue spoken by the foreigners of long ago."

Kangan's flinch was minimal, but he did bow and wipe the smirk from his face, suitably chastened. "My apologies, your eminence."

"Do not belittle my daughter again, Chief Advisor, and nothing more will be said about it." Mikado said lightly. Kangan nodded once more, still working his jaw, and Moegi filed his response to the chastisement away, staying silent as always. Nobody wished a woman to speak if she was not prompted to, not even a princess.

Emperor Tokugawa raised his right arm in a gesture. "Admit our visitors."

The mighty doors of Yafutoman spruce, two hands thick and painted a vibrant red, were pulled open by a pair of guards. Moegi got her first good look at the four travelers from the West. She momentarily forgot how to breathe.

With a pair of soldiers at their front and another pair at their back, they seemed less like visitors and more like prisoners being brought before tribunal. They didn't seem at all concerned, though, and she saw strangely forged swords strapped to the waists of the two men. The one leading them had _brown hair_ and a scar over his left cheek, and wore a strange eyepiece on his right. Most striking about the young man aside from his posture were his clothes. A coat of deep blue and more buttons than she'd ever seen in her life for such a garment, and a hat that made her blink as she struggled to place it. It was black and bore red and blue ribbons along its three cornered tips. She knew that hat. She _knew it_ and not remembering how she knew it made her freeze up until she shook herself out of it and focused on the features of the other three. The second man in their party was a little taller than the first, wore a strange flat and fluffed hat, and had hair the color of wheat ready for harvest. If the brown-haired man exuded confidence and unshakeable purpose, the second was tempered and refined. Like a sword made into human form. Or a shield, perhaps.

The other two in the party were women, and _that_ was where her mind well and truly fell in on itself. The first had yellow hair even brighter and more silvery than the tall man that felt like a well-crafted sword, but she wore a revealing silver dress with a cutout at the top of her breasts over her heart and the sleeves were bare in places. She carried no weapon, but Moegi, who knew enough magic of her own for minor defensive workings and even a little healing, shivered as those cool blue eyes of the young woman crossed over her face. Behind those eyes she felt a wellspring of tremendous strength, untapped and resting quietly, and knew that the magic she could call up exceeded anything she could ever hope to do.

The second young woman...Moegi just stared and _stared_ because she had to. No girl, no woman Moegi had ever met before had ever dressed like she did. Her hair was red and _blazing_ like the light of a blacksmith's forge in the two bound tails of her up-do, and her eyes were the same shade of brown as the man in the blue coat. She wore boots that came up to her knees, and then there was _nothing_ until the hem of a _very_ short skirt of yellow leather that connected to her bodysuit. She wore what seemed like a bare minimum of clothing, enough to cover the absolute necessities, but which for a Yafutoman of high birth, was absolutely scandalous. Moegi chanced a look over and saw her father staring at the women with wide eyes, his mask of impassivity broken, and Kangan's face was reddening while his son looked positively apoplectic. The red-haired woman ran her bare hand over the thick glove she wore on the other, clearly seeing the men in the room all staring at her. She then jutted her hip out, put a hand to it, and _smirked._

Each of the four Westerners dressed differently, had different hair, and in the subtle cues of their posture and their faces were signs that they clearly would _fight_ differently. If it came to that. That the guards hadn't stripped them of their weapons was telling in itself. Someone must have tried. Someone had clearly failed, and further efforts had been put off.

Her father cleared his throat, and Moegi averted her eyes in his direction to see him looking at her expectantly.

Oh. Right.

This was _her_ duty.

The Westerners' tongue had been recorded and passed down over the years. Learning a fraction of it, at least enough to recognize the cadence and know it as a danger for having been spoken by _Daqat_ two centuries past, was something every student who went past the basics of schooling in basic reading, writing and arithmetic received. Moegi had pushed further, learning the whole of it that had been written down, more out of personal interest. She'd never had a chance to practice it on a native speaker before. There was a first time for everything.

Moegi stepped forward slightly and dipped her head towards the newcomers. _"Wu - wee - gurreet you, peepul from West."_

The eyes of the four lit up at that, and the silver yellow haired woman in the silver dress moved forward, making a deeper bow and then folding her hands together in a _very_ formal and a _very_ old-fashioned gesture of respect.

The words that came out of her mouth stunned Moegi and everyone else in the room, because they were ancient, _ancient_ Yafutoman. A thousand and more years ago ancient.

"Fain to be in your presence, we are, respected ones, and without vainglory we come." The cadence and the sentence structure was all wrong, and Moegi blinked twice before she ended up tittering.

"Sorry, I - I'm sorry. But your Yafutoman is so stilted."

"Yafutoman?" The young woman repeated curiously. "Yafutoman - here?"

"Yes." Moegi nodded. "This is the royal palace at the heart of Yafutoma City, the center of the Empire of Yafutoma. My name is Princess Moegi Tokugawa. And you are?"

The woman worked out the feel of modern Yafutoman in her head, sounding it out silently on her tongue before nodding. "I am Fee-na. This is Vai-su and Aii-ka and Enu-ri-ki. You speak our tongue?"

_"Not well very." _Moegi apologized, reverting to the language of _Daqat._ The other three, Vai-su and Aii-ka and Enu-ri-ki all brightened up again as she did so.

_"How do you know it?" _Vai-su asked her. _"This land is not known in Mid-Ocean. Only Fina knew that there were lands beyond the Dark Rift."_

Moegi blinked. _"Dark...Rift?"_ She was slowly picking up the cadence and the structure of their tongue, but it was still rough going. Until she did so, communication would be rough.

She, along with everyone else in Yafutoma, was in desperate need of a primer. She didn't know she was showing frustration, but Fee-na must have seen it.

"An eternity, this translating might take." Fee-na came back in ancient Yafutoman again, sighing as she did so. "Forbearance, we must practice. Might there be more comfortable residence we could adjourn forthwith to continue our meeting?"

Moegi looked over to her father, noting his frown. As eager as she was to continue the dialogue, there was still one matter to be settled.

"Why have you come?" She asked Fee-na carefully. "Your great ship scares our people. Do you bring danger to us?"

Fina blinked in horror, repeating the question to the others softly in their Western dialect. The other three all recoiled as well, and Vai-su was the first to shake his head, vehemently denying it.

_"We did not come to hurt your people. We came to save them. We came to save all of Arcadia."_

Arcadia. There were names that had power, and that one was a name in the most ancient legends. It was the name of the world before the mythological Rains of Ruin. If such things were true and not just the creation myths their ancestors had told over fires at night to try and make sense of a world they didn't understand. Moegi drew in a deep breath and looked to Vai-su as the man stood there, not kowtowing, not even going to his knees, but standing there as though he were their equal in status. He stood there with his body unguarded and his hands away from the hilts of his blades and a look of earnestness that Moegi realized, with all her long years of studying facial cues in her father's Court, wasn't faked.

_"We are not your enemy. We need your help. We will tell you why we are here and answer your questions."_

_ "If there's someplace better to sit and talk?"_ Fee-na added with a hopeful smile.

Moegi wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. The years she had spent reading the accounts of _Daqat_ and the Princess Kikue and the danger of the Westerners, history boiled down into cautionary stories told to children and scraps of language meant to instill fear. Scraps of language that weren't enough, not by a longshot, and stories of questionable veracity.

She was living in a story of her own now with these travelers from the West.

_"We can use my liked parlor."_ She answered, fumbling with the word, but getting her point across.

* * *

Over the next four hours, two trays of savory meats and stir-fried vegetables and bowls of steaming white rice and far too much tea, Moegi worked through a crash course of back and forth that brought her passable Western dialect, which they called Mid-Ocean trade language, up to snuff. She learned valuable lessons about conjunctions and contractions, and how she had probably meant to say _favorite parlor_ instead of _liked._ A token force of her father's guards stood by the doors, but after the first hour, they loosened up and relaxed their grip on their weapons. If the four visitors, who Moegi now pronounced correctly as _Vyse, Aika, Fina, _and _Enrique_ noticed how their minders had been tense and were now relaxed, they said nothing about it.

Enrique borrowed an inkwell and drew a map of the world as he knew it on the tablecloth after the dishes were taken away, and Vyse and the two women who were with them spoke animatedly of the lands on the other side of the eternal dark storm that they called the Dark Rift. Moegi could only shake her head as they told her of lands where rains fell almost constantly on a living forest that covered an entire continent, and grand spans of arid landscape where the sun burned over open expanses of endless sand. They taught her of the six moons that lingered over Arcadia, which surprised Moegi who had only ever known of the _Blue Moon,_ and her head spun at the thought of there being five others.

The story of how they had come together was inextricably linked with the mission of great importance that Vyse had described. Another Empire under the yellow moon sought to claim moonstones of great power and risked the Rains of Ruin, what they called the Rains of Destruction, all over again. They had come up to being imprisoned in the enemy's stronghold and were starting the tale of their daring escape from it when Moegi blinked, set her teacup down, and stared at Enrique in shock.

"You - you are Prince?" She exclaimed.

"In exile." Enrique corrected her, smiling sadly. "I could not support what my mother, what the military under her was doing. For my honor, for the sake of my soul and the honor of my people, I had to leave. I am royalty, but I have pledged my troth to the Code of the Blue Rogues."

Moegi sifted through the prince's words, startled by how sincere he was about it. How there was no conflict in him over the decision. Of course there wouldn't be; he had said the word honor. _Meiyo._ It was so vital to her own culture, of course it would be important in his. It left a bitter feeling in her stomach, though. Why did he, a man, get to walk away from his role and his duties so freely? Why was he able to claim he was upholding his honor when he set duty aside?

"Princess Moegi, have I offended you in some way?" Prince Enrique asked her, concern writ plain on his face.

"You leave. Just for - honor?" She asked him coldly. "You leave duty behind? For honor?"

He winced a little, and Moegi caught how the other three looked to their friend sympathetically before fixing colder glances on her. Aika even reached a hand out and patted the prince's shoulder.

"Not just for honor." Enrique admitted, once he had composed himself. The smile came back, sadder than before. "I wasn't happy. My mother's ambitions are cruel, and she takes advice from a man even colder than she is. I had been raised to be virtuous. I had been taught to serve by a code of conduct. Yet no such virtues were practiced by my mother. By the bulk of the admiralty. And certainly not by the soldiers who served under them. When given an order they surely knew was unlawful under the rules of war, they should have refused. Yet to a one, they followed it. And kept following them, over and over again in spite of all my protests."

Moegi sat still as a statue as Enrique drummed a hand on his knee. "I was the crown prince, and my presence was useless, my opinions and my beliefs on how Valua should act and lead fell on deaf ears. I was _useless,_ caught in a trap made from my own role that I could not escape from. I could not bear it any longer, not while others fought a battle that was mine. I could not bear to be a prisoner in my own home, to be voiceless." Enrique looked up, nodding at her. "I apologize. This all must seem so strange to you. I must seem a horrible excuse for royalty, your highness. I'm sure you do not suffer the same pressures I did, valued as you are to your father. You must have no idea what I am going on about."

It was only her long years of courtly training that allowed Moegi to keep from weeping at his confession. Even with it, her hands tightened into fists underneath her dress's billowy sleeves. He thought she didn't understand? Truly? When Daigo had been cast out for opinions and actions that Kangan forced her father into taking offense to? When Daigo had tried to seek the best way forward for their people and been stymied at every turn? When there were days that Moegi wanted to _scream_ for feeling so trapped and helpless and victimized by the role that _duty_ and _honor_ had made for her?!

She swallowed once. Tried to speak, choked on a throat gone dry, and reached for her tea again. It had gone cold, but it was wet, and that was what she truly needed.

"Not strange." Moegi answered him softly. Enrique blinked as he tilted his head to the side and looked at her. Really _looked_ at her, in a soft and considering way that made her face go warm, and gave her the impulse to look away and reach for a paper fan to hide behind.

She coughed once, dismissed the strange feeling twisting in her stomach, and pressed on. "So. You want save world. Save _Arcadia._ How?"

Vyse looked to Aika and gave a small nod, and the red-haired woman brought the satchel she had come in with around to her front. She undid the clasp at the flap and reached inside. From it she produced a crystalline pyramid that glowed with a brilliant inner red light. She set it on the dining table between them, and Vyse pointed to it.

"We have to collect all of those. Take them someplace that Valua will never be able to find them." The _Blue Rogue_ as he called himself explained. "To Fina's people, who have stayed hidden from the rest of the world."

"There is one Moon Crystal for every moon above Arcadia." Fina went on gently. "There is one here in Yafutoma. We don't know where it is kept, we don't know how to get to it, but we know it is here. The stories of my people described it as a great blue pearl, like a droplet of water. It might even be forgotten. The people of Nasr had no idea that it existed. To the people of Ixa'taka, it was a legend known only to the priesthood. Our success, and the fate of the world lies with you, Princess Moegi."

The dark-haired princess reached a hand out slowly for the artifact between them, extending a single finger to touch its surface. It carried no heat in itself, yet from it she felt the phantom sensation of warmth, as if the hottest summer day had suddenly appeared around her. Moegi pulled her hand back and shivered. Aika took it back and stowed it away with such nonchalance that Moegi had to re-evaluate the red-haired woman's strength as well. How could she hold such a terrible power and not be affected by it?

"We will ask my father. Tomorrow." She needed time to process all of this, to get her thoughts in order and to practice her _Mid-Ocean_ language skills some more. No doubt they would appreciate the rest as well.

* * *

_181 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The Maga Sphere.

_Of course they were talking about the Maga Sphere._ Why wouldn't the great and terrible artifact of power that they were searching for be the ancient, lost treasure of Yafutoma? It wasn't as though Kangan and his worthless son Muraji needed another excuse to go flying off the handle, but this didn't help matters.

"Your majesty, we have entertained these treacherous Westerners long enough!" Kangan exploded, sneering under his eyebrows. "Westerners have only ever brought us disaster! Remember the deception and betrayal of that thief _Daqat,_ and do the only sensible thing! We must cleanse them from our lands immediately!" Vyse and Aika and Fina stood a little taller at the mention of the infamous rogue's name, looking confused.

"I agree with my father!" Muraji quickly seconded, and Moegi battled down the urge to roll her eyes. _There's a surprise, him just being a mouthpiece for his father._ "We should dispose of the Westerners with all haste."

The four visitors from the West that Moegi had gotten to know yesterday had returned to their vessel for the evening and returned refreshed. They watched the exchange with no small amount of wariness, and Enrique looked to Moegi.

_"Should we be worried?"_ He asked calmly. The Emperor raised his hand to silence the Chief Advisor and his feckless son, and shook his head.

"I understand your concern, Kangan, but these people are our guests. By all accounts, they have been peaceful during their time here. There is much we can learn about the West from them, and there is much they can learn from us. Just yesterday, my daughter produced a map of the Western world that they drew and explained freely, speaking of the lands elsewhere, and their ship has stayed in harbor and made no threatening moves. _Daqat_ was one man and one event. We have long memories, it is true, but is Yafutoma ruled by fear, or by reason?" He waited for Advisor Kangan to respond, and true to form, Kangan did nothing more than a slight bow of acceptance of the Emperor's wishes.

The point made, the Emperor turned to Moegi. "Inform our guests of the resting place of the Maga Sphere. While it is a treasure of Yafutoma and I am unwilling, for now at least, to let unknown visitors walk off with it, they would have the gratitude of the jade throne if they were to retrieve it. The ship merchant in the city who we commission parts for our royal vessels from, I believe he has a small vessel that can take them. I would prefer if their ship did not sail our skies freely."

Moegi bowed to her father's wishes and turned to address Enrique. _"An argument. Advisor Kangan does not like you."_

_"We don't like him, so the feeling's mutual." _Aika answered, smiling so casually that sugar wouldn't melt in her mouth. _"What else did your father say?"_

Moegi prepared herself. _"The Maga Sphere was treasure of the royal line in ancient times. It is relic passed down from ruler to crown heir long ago, but after the Rains of Ruin, legends say it was sealed away in the depths of Mount Kazai. Many thought this just stories, but…" _Moegi paused, remembering the gleam of the Red Moon Crystal that Aika had produced so willingly in her presence, and the feel of the terrible power within it. _"...I know now, they is true."_

_ "They __**are**__ true." _Vyse corrected her gently. _"You're improving, your highness. So, if it is in that big mountain we saw north of the city on the mainland when we flew in, do we have your father's permission to go looking for it?"_

Moegi didn't shake her head. _"With acceptance."_

_ "Um." _Fina interjected. _"He is allowing it, or there are other details with his yes? If there are other details, the word you want is __**exceptions.**__"_

Moegi's placid smile faltered a little. _"Exceptions. The Maga Sphere is Yafutoman treasure. He does not want it...how you say, disappear?" _Aika rolled a hand at her, in a gesture that Moegi knew from their exchanges yesterday to mean **more. **_"More disappear? Ing? Ah. Disappearing. Yes."_

_"So he would like to hold onto it, then?" _Vyse mused. Moegi nodded. _"For the short term...that would be fine. What would we have to do to convince him that the safest place for it is with the others, in the hands of Fina's people?"_

Moegi considered it. _"Your ship, when it flew in, frightened us. Kangan still thinks you plan on war making. Is there a reassurance you can make that you have good intent?"_

Enrique looked over to Vyse, and the two men exchanged a glance full of silent conversation.

_"You're afraid of us?" _Vyse asked.

_"Westerners...not have best reputation."_ She said back. _"There was man, long ago. He came. Stole princess, stole bridal gift. Stole wedding feast and fled on Yafutoman ship. We have long memory."_

Vyse nodded, idly tapping the side of his three-cornered black hat, and Moegi's eyes went to it. The realization hit her like a thunderbolt. She knew why that hat seemed so familiar. But she dared not utter it here, where her father and more importantly, _Kangan,_ could hear it. Daccat wore a hat like that according to the legends, but there was never any mention of red and blue ribbons sewn around its brim.

_"Then we'll have to show you that you can trust us."_ Vyse said to her. _"Starting by retrieving the Blue Moon Crystal for you."_

Moegi cocked her head. _"So sudden? You not afraid of danger?"_

The grin Vyse gave her didn't have a shred of doubt in it. _"We're Blue Rogues, your highness, and we live by a Code. Part of that Code? Blue Rogues never back down from a greater danger. Besides, this won't be our first dungeon dive. The Temple of Pyrynn? There were _way_ more traps there."_

_ "I see." _Moegi recovered quickly. _"There is a merchant known to my father, he has been loyal many years. To get to mountain, you will need Yafutoman ship."_

Vyse blinked. _"Oh. We're flying to the top of the mountain?" _Moegi nodded. _"Right. Your ships can fly higher than the _Delphinus _can."_ He agreed.

_"You...have met Yafutoman ship before?"_

Fina stepped forward, switching over to Yafutoman. The silvery-yellow haired girl must have been very smart, because she'd picked up more markers of the modern dialect, and she no longer sounded so outdated. "A few ships, just past the mighty walls of stone. In vain, they attacked us, and we threw them back whenst they tried to board. They fought bare-handed, demanded our weapons. They named themselves Tenkou."

At Fina's announcement, Kangan scowled and Moegi's father looked pained.

"Pirates." Kangan snapped. "Treacherous pirates in our skies are the Tenkou. And you fought them off?"

"We did." Fina answered him. "How long have Tenkou been here?"

"Five years, almost six." The Emperor said. "They go after traders, Imperial ships, but they leave smaller, poorer vessels alone. It is why I am sending you with the blacksmith to the mountain. He goes often looking for ore; if there are Tenkou who might be sniffing around, they will leave him be."

Fina bowed in gratitude and then turned and filled her comrades in on the plan in Mid-Ocean trader's tongue. Vyse and Enrique both seemed to agree with it, and then Vyse looked to Moegi.

_"While myself and my comrades sail to Mount Kazai with this blacksmith, we'll keep our ship docked. In the interest of fostering better relations, Princess Moegi, you are welcome to visit the _Delphinus_ and meet with the other members of our crew. They come from all over the world, and joined for many different reasons. You will have no better chance to practice your mastery of our language than with our people."_

_ "When?" _Moegi blurted out, eager for the chance. Or maybe she was just eager for a glimpse of the outside world, of seeing something _different_ in her life. Of seeing more Westerners, people who Vyse seemingly trusted not to harm her.

Maybe it was selfish, but she wanted _one thing_ in her life that she had decided for herself.

"Agreed." She inclined her head, smiling gently in defiance of the joy she felt over matters. For the benefit of her father, she spoke in her native tongue, confident that Fina could translate it to the others well enough. "I accept your invitation to tour your ship and meet with your crew while you are on the quest to reclaim the Maga Sphere."

Vyse nodded, the girls seemed pleased. The warm smile that Enrique offered up lingered on her mind the longest, as did how he took a step forward and extended a hand towards her.

_"I would consider it a privilege to escort you and make the introductions."_

He didn't use the word **honor** there, he didn't treat it as an obligation.

Moegi looked one last time at Vyse, and to the eerily familiar hat that was so much like _Daqat's_ before turning back to Prince Enrique. Enrique, a prince who had left his homeland behind by choice out of a desperate wish to save it from itself.

His soft blue eyes were stunning.

* * *

_The Delphinus, Yafutoma City Harbor_

_182 Days After the (First) Grant Fortress Escape_

Princess Moegi had often wondered about the world. Yafutoma had lived in isolation, insulated from everything else aside from its own concerns for centuries. Millennia, even. Daccat, as his name was more properly pronounced in the common tongue of the Westerners, had been a thunderbolt through Yafutoma. There was more to the world than the swirling black storms and the impenetrable stone reefs which formed the west and the far east of their skies. There were other people that lived in it.

She had come aboard the _Delphinus_ as an honored guest yesterday by Prince Enrique and was introduced to as many people as the prince who claimed to come from the lands under the storm-darkened skies of the yellow moon could get away with before Fang Su the merchant had appeared. The merchant had flown up adjacent to the rail of the great metal ship with Vyse and Aika and Fina to retrieve their fourth comrade. Enrique had issued his apologies for leaving her without a proper escort and passed her off to the warm and friendly hands of a woman named Kalifa, whose enigmatic smiles and easy laughter shattered Moegi's view of the world even more than Aika and Fina had.

Even today, with a full night's sleep under her, she was still reeling from the discoveries of yesterday. So many different people lived and worked on that ship of wonders. Kalifa had tried to introduce her to everyone that Enrique had missed, and with her steadily improving skill with the Mid-Ocean dialect, she had been inundated with the wealth of diversity.

There was the dark-skinned Merida and Tikatika, who claimed to come from a land called _Ixa'taka_ in the far, _far_ west, under the domain of the green moon that Vyse had described. What Merida and Tikatika wore went beyond mere scandal to Yafutoma's more conservative style of dress, tiny bits of thin, _thin_ cloth stitched together with bright feathers. They came from a people wronged by Valua and who had been _saved_ by Vyse and the women Aika and Fina. Merida had joined to spread joy and laughter with her dancing, to remind herself and others that there were things beyond the fighting. Tikatika had joined as penance for his failure to see the danger coming, and vowed that Vyse and the women Aika and Fina, the saviors of his people, would not ever be caught so unawares.

There was a boy, born to the lowest of the low under the darkened skies of Prince Enrique's capital, who had struggled to survive on the streets after his parents were killed and who had stowed away aboard the great ship when Vyse stole it and escaped. He never had a cross word for anyone on the crew in spite of the suffering he had lived through, and his hero worship of Vyse was endearing in a way that made Moegi laugh behind her hand.

There were two survivors of a city that had once stood proud under the light of a red moon, a rubenesque woman merchant and a barrel-chested cannoneer who had almost drowned the sorrows of his failure to protect his home in alcohol before Enrique and Vyse had stood him up, driven sense into him, and breathed fresh purpose into his lungs. He and a company of his men served as the cannon crew, as they proudly declared.

There were two subordinate ship engineers. That was a word new to her, but it meant a sailor skilled in the working of machinery. They were unrelated, both fostered by the same family, as they adamantly insisted on, but their loyalty to each other and to the Lady Aika and to Vyse was built on rock-solid, unwavering trust. The younger had joined to see the world and go on adventures, and the older had joined because Vyse had beaten him down when he was vengeful and bitter, and lanced the wound with the balm of truth and a second chance.

There was an explorer who had _demanded_ to sail with Vyse once it became clear that the Blue Rogue would beat him to every new discovery and revelation about the world, and who still marveled at the wanderlust his captain was possessed by.

There was a skillful herbalist and physician who had sworn never to cause harm, only to cure it. By virtue of some long-ago and previously unknown tie of blood linked to his name, he had claimed the Lady Fina as his distant and most precious niece, proudly calling himself her uncle.

What brought Moegi to the point of tears, though, were how many people aboard the great metal ship were clearly past their prime as sailors, but who declared to a one that Vyse was the greatest captain they had ever known. From their leader, a helmsman named Don, Moegi learned of a quest to fly through the great black storm west of Yafutoma. She'd learned how the people of the West had considered Daccat's claim of lands beyond the dark storm to be an invented boast, and had thought it the edge of the world. Don had told her of a quest formed 20 years ago brought to a painful end, and how they had all been wasting away in a forgotten settlement, dying slowly as they stared into the void that had denied them their hopes and dreams. She learned of how Captain Vyse and the Ladies Aika and Fina and Prince Enrique had sailed, stirred their spirits, beaten back Valua's Armada. She learned of how every Esperanzan had fought to rebuild a single ship to fly out and join them before they pierced the storm. She learned how, with the help of the Esperanzans, Vyse and his crew did in a week what no Westerner had ever done successfully before; they crossed it. She learned of how they had found a single survivor within that eternal storm, Don's closest friend and the husband of the ship's cook who had signed on for the sole purpose of trying to find her missing love.

When Don told her of the ceremony that Vyse had held the night after they came out on the eastern side, how they had planted the tattered expedition flag and mourned the deaths of their fallen brothers, her eyes had burned. The old sailor had passed her a napkin to dab her eyes with, and never said a word about it.

Every person aboard the _Delphinus_ came from a different place in the world, had joined for a different reason. Every one of them was Loyal in a way that Moegi had never known was possible, Loyal like no oath of fealty ever made to her father had ever sounded. He offered them their dreams, a Code to live and sail by worth admiring, and a place to belong. They were pirates in the broadest sense of the word, but every one of them was quick to rally and argue that they were _Blue Rogues. _That they fought against oppression, for freedom, and that Vyse's mission to save the world wasn't just some made-up excuse.

She stood on the foredeck next to the young Marco as he and another boy named Pinta played catch with a strange breed of dog that was the friendliest, rolliest ball of purple fur one might ever see. The boy reminded her a little of the ducks that liked to swim in the pond around the royal palace, when the swans didn't get in their way. It was the way that he let everything roll off of his back and kept charging along, making noises every few seconds, although no duck that Moegi had ever known had hair so blood red as Marco's. Even Aika's hair wasn't as dark.

He was also, for a boy, very observant. "You okay, princess?" He asked her.

"I am well, Maru - sorry, Marrko." She replied, reminding herself that the Westerners dropped some of the vowel sounds in their names. Writing Western names out in Yafutoman script promised to be frustrating, and it explained why they pronounced Daccat differently.

The boy wasn't so easily reassured. "Yeah, pull the other one." he said, and she blinked. Pull the other what? "You're unhappy."

She was, but having a boy she'd known for less than a day puzzle it out so easily startled her. "I am...concerned." She corrected him. "Worried, for your people. The Maga Sphere, it is lost in the great mountain. Others, they have looked. Many dangers are there. Some, drown."

Marco chuckled. "Don't count them out, princess. Just when you think he's licked? That's when Vyse turns around and makes it work. Blue Rogues _never_ give up."

He was so sure, so settled. Moegi shook her head. "You think he has the luck, protection of ancient spirits?"

"Maybe?" Marco replied, shrugging. Pow came running up with a stick in his mouth and plopped it at their feet, his tail wagging eagerly. Marco chuckled and threw it across the deck to where Pinta was at the other end of the foredeck. "I dunno about spirits or nothin', but he's got Aika and Fina looking out for him, and they're _plenty_ strong. But luck? Nah. He makes his own luck. And they've done this before, from what I've heard. Going into ancient ruins? Dealing with traps and monsters? They'll be fine." He looked back at her again. "That isn't what has you so upset, though. It's something else."

The boy was _far_ too insightful, Moegi told herself. She wondered how he might do in her father's court, if he'd been allowed time for some training.

"It is nothing you can change." She told him. "Things are...very different here. What you and others tell me of life in the West, it is…"

"Bad?"

"No." Moegi quickly shook her head. "Not bad. Different."

Marco blinked. "Wait up a second. Are you - are you _jealous_ of us?" He asked, and he took her silence as an affirmative. "You're a princess, though! When your father steps down, you get to take over!"

"I do not." Moegi ground the words out. "My husband will rule. Then my sons, if I have any."

Marco blinked. "Huh. Seems kind of weird. I mean, Valua has an _Empress_ for crying out loud, Enrique's mom. She's as crazy and evil as all get out, but nobody says a thing about her being a girl." He scratched at his mop of red hair, using the pause to reach down as Pow came back to them and dropped the stick again. Another throw later, he turned his focus on Moegi. "You're trapped, aincha?"

Moegi laughed once, bitterly. "More than I knew, seeing you all."

Marco shrugged. "You know, there's nothing wrong with not being happy about how things are going in your life. If I'd just said I was fine with my life, I'd still be back in Valua's slums, eating out of trash bins. It's okay to want something more. Vyse taught me that. It's okay to try and be happy. That's why I'm proud to call myself a Blue Rogue. I'm _happy_ here. I have a family again. I have a big brother and two big sisters. I _chose_ to be here. This was my choice. So what's your choice?"

"I don't get one." Moegi said thickly, and Marco scowled.

"The hell you don't. Enrique left, and he's still a prince. He says he isn't, but he is. Stopping the Empire was his choice. He keeps telling me it's the only way to save our people; stopping the Armada. He could have rolled over and just let things keep happening. He didn't. You don't have to either. You want something more? You make it happen. Or you ask for help. I know Vyse. If you asked him for help, he'd give it to you."

A princess, asking for help from a pirate. Unheard of. Or, depending on which version of the story of Princess Kikue one believed in...perhaps not.

"I will consider." Moegi said, and gave Marco a short bow. "See you at lunch?"

"Oh, yeah, that's right!" Marco brightened up. "You said something last night about offering to have some Yafutoman cuisine brought on board for us. I'm pretty excited for it. Do you really use tiny sticks to stab everything?"

Moegi blinked. "What? No. You _pick up_ food with them."

"You pick up food. With sticks." Marco blinked, and Moegi nodded. He thought about it for two seconds, then shook his head. "I don't get it."

Moegi's giggle was more honest than her prior reassurances had been. "I will show you."

"Good." Marco grinned. "I get to learn something new. Later, princess!" And he left her side, going running for Pow who started barking happily as he went to join the dog and Pinta in closer proximity.

Moegi sighed and turned to walk back into the ship proper. Miss Polly had offered to brew her a cup of an alternative to tea that had taken some of the ship's crew by storm, and she was eager to try a bit of the _Kof-fi_ that supposedly came from Ixa'taka.

Advisor Kangan Kurowei was a harsh and bitter man who Moegi attributed much of her suffering towards. He looked at the Westerners and saw them as nothing more than a threat to the Yafutomans, to their way of life and to their security and their prosperity. Kangan had always been like that, even when Moegi had been a little girl. Differences were things to be stamped out, uniformity bred safety and tranquility. Her ongoing cultural exchange with Captain Vyse and his crew here on the _Delphinus_ was something that made the sneering and cold-hearted man constantly sour-faced. She hoped dearly that Vyse and Enrique and the Ladies Aika and Fina returned, and returned quickly, if only to prove him wrong.

Their world had been upended for only two days now, but Moegi found herself soaring even as Kangan struggled to stay afloat and relevant. _May you live in interesting times,_ indeed. Kangan saw differences as intolerable weakness.

Moegi, who knew these Westerners better than anyone else in Yafutoma now and was still learning more about them every day, saw something else. In their differences they had found a sense of unity that could not be broken, a pride that went beyond loyalty to flag or to crown.

It was a strength, and one that Marco had offered to her freely. The strength to help her find her happiness.

The histories said that the Thief Daccat stole Princess Kikue and disappeared, never to be seen again. Now another thief, but one who walked in honor with the goal of protecting the world had appeared 200 years later. In Vyse's confidence, and in the trust and respect that she saw in Prince Enrique's blue eyes every time the self-exiled royal looked to his captain, Moegi felt that strength and began to wonder if the histories had been falsified to hide what her ancestors must have seen as shameful.

Perhaps Daccat hadn't _stolen_ Kikue at all, but merely offered her a hand and showed her a way forward in a world larger than she'd ever known before. What if she was so miserable about her destined life that she had been willing to do anything, even sacrifice a life of leisure paid for as the role of bedwarmer and unwilling mother for her intended? Perhaps Kikue had felt so trapped that she'd thrown everything away just for the chance at something different. Something that, perhaps, could be better.

Moegi dared to think, for the first time in years, that perhaps she too might have her fate altered. Another pirate had come wearing a hat far too similar to Daccat's to be mere coincidence. At her back, she felt the Divine Wind, the protective spirit said to watch over their lands.

She paused at the door of the foredeck's entry and looked over her shoulder into the harbor of Yafutoma City, shivered once, and then walked inside.


	32. When The Walls Fell

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Thirty-Two: When The Walls Fell**

_The Shrine of Wave and Wind_

_Underneath Mount Kazai_

Fina had known she was different all her life. The only other child she'd ever had in her life growing up had been Ramirez. The only Silvites besides them were the venerable elders, and Ramirez made for a poor representative sample. When Ramirez left for Arcadia on the mission to retrieve the Moon Crystals, Fina had buried herself in her studies, mastering not only silver magic as the sole standing priestess of the Silver Shrine, but other magics besides. She had inhaled the languages, written and spoken of the Old World, and studied engineering when she could get away with it. At night, when she went to bed, she would read stories by long-dead authors, literature lost to the world save in the databanks of the Silver Shrine. She liked adventure stories, but romance novels and even light erotica...those, she could never get enough of. Fina had known she was different, but she was 14 before she realized that she read as many stories of women falling in love with other women as she did men falling in love with women. It was another piece of the puzzle of her heart she filed away, never to forget.

The only expectation that the elders had ever had for her was for her to master the magics and the rituals that would make her a fully trained priestess. Everything else she did on her own because she was more than they expected her to be. Everything else she did to stave off the loneliness of being the only child, the only non-augmented Silvite still present in her home. All the other Elders were content to maintain the status quo. Fina had always wanted more. But then, she had known she was different. And perhaps the memory of her youth with Ramirez colored her actions as well.

She would have nobody call her _useless_ ever again.

Yet for all of that, when the day came in her 17th year of life that the Elders asked her to journey to Arcadia and carry out the mission that should have been Ramirez's to fulfill, Fina was still woefully unprepared for the role that fell on her. If she hadn't met Vyse and Aika…

No. She could never finish that thought, not now. Fina didn't want to _think_ about what her life would be without her lovers in it, holding her at night and forever by her side in the day. Without knowing who she was and knowing only that it was the right thing to do, they had charged into the heart of the enemy's domain to rescue her and their family and friends. There had been hard days at first until they found their balance, with Fina saving Aika from a gruesome demise.

They had done so much since then, yet with _love,_ the kind of pure _accepting love_ from both of them that she had dreamed of as a girl and never thought she would find, it no longer seemed impossible. There had only been one thing missing. The special handshake, the one she'd seen Vyse and Aika first do in front of her at the Temple of Pyrynn, had been territory she'd not crossed into.

They paused as they walked past the corpse of Kazai's hidden temple's guardian, a turtle whose strength had lay in its defenses, and with Enrique standing back, Vyse and Aika had turned to Fina after they all looked at the beautiful teardrop-shaped Blue Moon Crystal kept beneath Mount Kazai. They had turned to her, grinned, and asked her to join them.

She knew the movements of their handshake. She knew the pattern, a pattern that had only ever been practiced between two people. To have it go three ways, she wondered if it was possible. But their eyes had been so eager and earnest, and she'd _wanted_ to share this triumphal gesture with them for so long that she tried regardless.

Fina shouldn't have worried. It came as easy as their love did, that 'Blue Rogue handshake.' She fit in between them as easy as breathing.

She took the Blue Moon Crystal into her hands and beamed through teary eyes as Aika and Vyse closed around her and the three hugged tightly in victory.

Fina had always known she was different, and she no longer felt like a woman out of place in the world. She was right where she belonged.

She was home.

* * *

_185 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_The Royal Palace, Yafutoma City_

_Yafutoma_

They returned in triumph in the late afternoon, and the Emperor was so thrilled at their success that he ordered a feast for that night, and invited the crew of the _Delphinus_ to attend. The expedition team of Vyse, Aika, Enrique and Fina herself had been surprised to find that Moegi had spent the majority of every day of their absence on board their ship, speaking and interacting with their crew. Having been kept on board and sitting idle in the harbor may have given them time to attend to the tasks of routine maintenance that the _Delphinus_ needed after its trek across the Dark Rift, but after nearly a week of seeing an entire civilization dangling just out of reach, Fina could hardly blame them for all going a little stir crazy.

She still laughed as she remembered what Vyse had told them after strutting on board and speaking over the whole of the ship. _"Well, it seems we're fast becoming this lot's favorite bunch. After digging up the Moon Crystal, we've been invited to a quality shindig. And I mean _all_ of us. Secure your stations, report to Enrique for a rotating watch assignment so we don't get any curious wanderers sneaking on board. Everybody's going to get to enjoy this feast! You've earned it!"_

As always, Vyse seemed to know exactly what to say. He was a leader, through and through.

The dinner itself was lavish, and she and Vyse and Aika and Enrique had seats along the left side of the table, while the Emperor's Chief Advisor and the other members of the nobility faced them along the start of the right. As for the rest of the crew, they were mostly arranged at separate tables, although Vyse had insisted on putting Marco up next to them. Why became apparent when drinks started to circulate through the room and Vyse quickly grabbed the small saucer of rice wine away from Marco before he could get a taste.

"When you're older." Vyse told the boy firmly, and Marco groaned.

"Vyse! Come on, just a sip? We drink smallbeer on the ship all the time!"

"We do, but that doesn't get you drunk, and it keeps you from getting sick." Vyse smirked at him. "You'll have to wait a while before I let you drink anything stronger. Good try, though."

"You're not my dad." Marco muttered mulishly, looking down at the table. Fina straightened out a little at that, wondering if Vyse would take offense to it. It was the kind of thing said to _give_ offense, usually. Vyse just laughed it off and rubbed the top of Marco's head.

"No, but I am your captain, little man. And if that's not good enough, I'm pretty sure I've earned big brother status."

"What?" Marco stammered, blushing. "N - no, you haven't!"

"Oh, so Moegi was lying to us when she said you called Aika your big sister?"

"Y - Well, _no,_ but…"

"What, so you're fine with Aika and Fina being your big sisters but I'm not good enough to be your big brother?" Vyse pouted, and Marco got even more flustered, finally scowling and looking away. Vyse laughed again and took his black captain's hat off, plunking it down on top of Marco's head. "Tell you what. You turn 15, I'll buy you your first drink and we'll sit out under the stars and enjoy it properly."

_"Fine."_ Marco sighed, fidgeting with the hat until he could pull it off. "This doesn't fit me."

"Guess I'll take it back then." He did so amidst Aika's hearty cackle and Fina smiling behind her hand. The Silvite paused when she saw Princess Moegi do the same thing, albeit with a paper fan. It was good to know that she had a sense of humor underneath the formality that was expected from her here. Strangely, she kept eyeing Enrique and Vyse. Or rather, she kept eyeing Enrique, and kept looking at Vyse's _hat._

A servant brought Marco some fruit juice in place of the rice wine he'd been given, and soon thereafter, the Emperor made a toast to their honored guests. Moegi prompted them into the ritual that went with it so they wouldn't embarrass themselves or offend their host, and to Fina's relief, the crew all followed Vyse's lead as they dipped their heads in the prescribed manner.

The food came out soon after, smelling wonderfully bright and savory and sweet and spicy. It was only then that Fina realized that they had been given chopsticks, _and no other utensils to use._ She at least knew of the concept behind them, even if the fare she'd been given in her youth didn't rely on them exclusively. Vyse stared at the sticks placed on the cloth napkin beside his plate for a long while before making an attempt at using them. Marco, the dear lovable child that he was, couldn't even be bothered to do that much. He took one look at the utensils and how the Yafutomans were using them, and then started spearing the items off of his plate, using them like a skewer. Enrique, perhaps because he knew more of the art of diplomacy than the rest due to his royal upbringing, did not act so hastily. He took his time, sipping delicately at his rice wine and his tea as he watched the others implement them, and only picked his up once he seemed able to make a proper go of it. While his technique was rudimentary, he nonetheless didn't make a fool of himself as Marco and many of the crew did; more than one crewmember tried them out and then settled on using their soup spoon for everything.

Among the 'Western' contingent at the table, only Aika used them flawlessly, her thumb and fingers gripping them effortlessly. The redhead dug into the spicy portions of fried and glazed poultry and beef with audible pleasure, using the still steaming bowl of white rice that had been put in front of her between bites to temper the burn. It went on for a good minute before everyone else around her started staring in disbelief, and she paused and looked back at them in confusion, swallowing before speaking. "What? Is something wrong?"

"How are you so _good_ at that?" Vyse uttered. "We've never used anything like these utensil sticks before."

Aika blushed a little, averting her eyes. "I'm an engineer. Figuring out how things work is what I do, and these? Well, they're actually pretty useful. Once you know how to hold them."

"You put my efforts to shame, Lady Aika." Enrique praised her, and Fina couldn't help herself, leaning in and smirking.

"Aika was always good with her hands." Aika turned a shade redder at the praise and the implication behind it, remembering pleasurable evenings and mornings in Fina's company. Vyse coughed a little and then reached for his own cup of green tea to cover his own flushed face.

_"So, it seems that our Western guests are not entirely barbaric." _Minister Kangan Kurowei said, and Fina could hear the sneer that the man kept hidden underneath the surface. Something about the man who served as the Emperor's closest advisor grated on her nerves. _"A few of you aren't quite so brainless in the use of chopsticks."_

Fina stared the man down while Enrique, Vyse, and Aika all looked either to her or to Moegi for a translation. Moegi was just starting to provide one when Fina cut her off, speaking in Yafutoman as well in a pleasant tone and with a smile that was out of place. _"Nor are we so brainless as thou must be, to insult the Emperor's honored guests at a dinner held to celebrate their triumph."_

Moegi choked, staring at Fina incredulously, and the Silvite kept smiling, turning and bowing her head to the Emperor as Kangan fumed and his son looked ready to declare a blood feud. _"Your majesty. Thine bountiful repast is truly a marvel to partake in. May the blessings of the Ancients fall on your line for your charity."_

The Emperor blinked at the turnaround in her demeanor, and offered a polite smile and a much slighter nod of his own head in her direction. _"Your words are ancient, but the mannerisms are intact. You do your party great credit, silver-garbed one."_

Fina smiled even wider, then turned to her friends. "Diplomacy." She said simply, and went back to eating. There was a uneasy pause before the conversation got started back up again, and several minutes later as the next course was brought out, Fina caught Princess Moegi Tokugawa staring at Vyse's black tricorn hat yet again. That, she determined, was finally worth a question.

"Princess Moegi." She said, speaking in Mid-Ocean for the benefit of her party. The dark-haired royal of Yafutoma set her chopsticks down across the lip of her rice bowl and looked to Fina, inclining her head to let the Silvite know she could keep speaking. "I've noticed that you seem constantly drawn to Captain Vyse's hat. Is there something of peculiar interest about it?"

"It...is familiar." Moegi said, steadier in her words due to her time aboard the _Delphinus_ while they were delving into the depths of Mount Kazai. "It is like hat from the old stories. Is like _Daccat's_ hat."

Fina nodded, because there had to be a reason for her interest in it. The name _Daqat_ had been bandied about by the Yafutomans in their presence, but never directly, always as an aside between themselves. None of the Yafutomans had spoken to them about that historical figure directly. Until now.

"He's a legend in Mid-Ocean." Vyse said. "The greatest air pirate who ever sailed the skies under all six moons of Arcadia, as the legend went."

Moegi's eyes brightened. "You know him?"

"We know _of_ him." Vyse smiled. "He was admired and he was feared, and _we_ discovered his hidden island." The Blue Rogue gestured between himself and Fina and Aika. "On top of everything else, he was also one hell of a joker. We went looking for his treasure, the riches of every kingdom. You know what we found?"

Fina looked around and noted that the room had fallen silent. Even those of the Yafutomans who didn't speak Mid-Ocean tradespeak fluently were leaning forward slightly, their black and almond eyes watching him sharply. The mention of Daccat's name had been enough to draw them in. Moegi, most of all. If her eyes went any wider, they were liable to pop out of her skull.

Vyse held up a finger. "One. Single. Gold. Coin. Just one coin with his emblem on both sides. An enormous treasure chest with one coin, and a worn letter in his own handwriting. The greatest treasure to Daccat was the open skies, comrades, and open-handed cooperation. Everything else was just details." The Blue Rogue laughed and shook his head, looking down at the table as he smiled in remembrance of it. "Dead for close to two centuries, and that old bastard taught us the most important lesson worth learning."

"More or less." Aika said, propping her elbow on the table and leaning on her hand to grin at him. "We might've added a thing or two since."

_We certainly have,_ Fina thought. "Princess." She chimed in. "What tales of Daccat are spoken here in Yafutoma? In the west, many people do not even believe that he made it here, that his stories of a land under the Blue Moon were just lies he told to bolster his reputation."

Moegi shook her head. "No. He came. In the accounts, he kidnap- um, _kidnapped_ Princess Kikue. He run off with her before her wedding, take feast, take her bride price. Kikue was never seen again. Daccat also, disappeared after." Moegi inclined her head towards Vyse's hat. "And in stories, he wears hat. Just like that one. Black and with three corners." She paused. "But blue or red on the tips."

"Huh." Vyse took it off and examined it. "Well. I'm doubtful that this is _Daccat's_ hat. It was a gift from a boy we helped in Maramba. His family came from a long line of air pirates whose ancestor _supposedly_ served with Daccat, but little Rupee Larso just wanted to make carpets with his mother. He's very good at it, too. There's a blue and silver diamond patterned carpet he made in my cabin that's just lovely. The hat had been in his family for a long time." He looked at it a moment longer, smiled, and plunked it back on his head. He made no mention of its power that Fina had felt when they first got it, of how Vyse felt _stronger_ when he wore it. How Rupee had spoken of the 'power of the ancestors' that ran through it and how Fina suspected it grew in its spiritual potency a little more with every person that owned it going back for two centuries. If the stories of its provenance were true.

Just as well. Fina doubted that the Yafutomans cared much for ghost stories. She was glad that nobody had spoken of Bluheim yet, the ancient blue gigas that they had seen buried, melted and melded with the inner surface of Kazai's crater lake. She was glad that the Emperor had not suggested using the 'Maga Sphere' to reactivate it. The ship merchant had shaken his head and called it a 'monster buried by Kazai', as hopeful a clue that the truth of Bluheim and the Maga Sphere's real purpose had been lost to time. Fina preferred that thought, and didn't dare ask any of the Yafutoman authorities about it. It was better for the Gigas to lie forgotten and buried.

Still...the way that one merchant had spoken of how _Yafutoma is protected by the divine winds_ had made her shiver. It sounded too terribly close to Bluheim's true power. From the perspective of someone who didn't understand that power's true source.

She kept her peace as Moegi translated their conversation to her father and thus, to everyone else at the table. The Emperor nodded solemnly, speaking back, and Moegi translated for the others while Fina managed it in her head.

_"So, Daccat was a thief all over the world, not just here in Yafutoma. Was he ever brought to justice?"_

Vyse listened to Moegi's translation and shook his head. "No. As the stories go, after he'd had his fill of adventure, his crew scattered to the winds with their shares of his plunder, starting enterprises of their own. Daccat took his two ships, the _Salamander_ and the _Scorpion_ and disappeared into the Frontier Lands north of Nasrad, at the northern edge of the world. People talked about him afterwards, but there was never anything definite. It's all just gossip and hearsay these days now, _'my great-great-great grandfather saw Daccat going through the Nasultan's Great Market when he was a boy'_ and other stories like it. He just disappeared. But now we know where; he must have spent his last years and all the rest of his treasure making that false tomb of his, all to set up that last joke and bit of wisdom from the grave." Vyse shrugged. "We must seem an odd people to you, Emperor Tokugawa. Daccat was feared in his time, but he is revered by many these days, especially in the face of Valua's unfeeling aggression. He was a pirate and a thief, and according to the stories, he was ruthless to his enemies. But he also never put a town to the torch, or killed an innocent soul. He would steal from merchants but always make sure they made it back safely to harbor, if only to spread the stories of his successes."

Moegi started to translate it back, but somewhere in the middle of it, her voice got thick and she swallowed, unable to go on. Fina finished the rest, trying not to make it sound too terribly arcane to their ears.

The Emperor listened patiently, but Minister Kangan's scowl became even more legendary as the Western opinion of the hated thief Daccat was laid bare.

_"You dare revere such an honorless thief?"_ He snapped back, and Fina narrowed her eyes. She wanted to snap back at him, but instead translated it for the others. As she expected, Vyse's eyes burned at the jibe.

"Thieves can have honor. Air pirates can have more honor than an empire." He said, each word carefully chosen.

"More honor than Valua has under my mother and the Admiralty." Enrique added darkly.

"We are Blue Rogues." Vyse explained, squeezing his hands into fists. "We live by a Code. We are not _Black Pirates_ who attack indiscriminately and go after the weak and the helpless. We're Blue Rogues because 20 years ago, my father was told to burn a village to the ground in cannonfire and he said _no."_ He stared across the table at Kangan, his brown eyes gone flinty and full of thunder. "He, and the others who joined under his banner had two choices; capitulate to tyranny and live a worthless life spent in fear, cowering in chains of the mind and of steel, or risk everything to stand against it and say **NO.** We are Blue Rogues, Minister Kurowei, and we revere Daccat for his _bravery_, not his plunder. We are Blue Rogues, and we Fly Free."

There was silence for exactly half a second after Moegi translated Vyse's message back to Kangan and everyone else in the room, and then Fina let out a yelp as a powerful roar shattered the calm of their meal. It began with Marco jerking up to his feet, his freckled face red with anger and his green scarf undone around his neck. It didn't end there. Each and every member of the crew aside from Enrique, herself, Aika and Vyse took their cue from that boy and bellowed in perfect cadence. _"Blue Rogues Fly Free!"_

Everyone in the room that hadn't spoken, Vyse included, was startled at that announcement. Kangan was stunned. Muraji looked terrified, and even flinched away. The Emperor was still as a statue, but his old eyes were wide and glinting as he re-evaluated Vyse and his other honored guests.

Vyse was the first to snap out of it, and he did so with a wide grin full of pride and admiration. "Well said." He congratulated them all, ruffling the top of Marco's head a second time, and for once, Marco didn't shy away from the tender gesture. "Well said."

Fina smiled as Vyse congratulated the youngest of the crew, pausing only when she noticed how Moegi's ordinarily calm face had turned sorrowful...And saw that Enrique had seen the same thing.

* * *

_Later that Evening_

"So, Enrique." Aika began conversationally, a smile in her voice. Fina sighed inwardly and watched Vyse straighten up and immediately become suspicious. They were walking around the outer gardens within the walls that surrounded the Royal Palace and its adjacent buildings, engaging in some light exercise after their dinner. Perhaps trying to sober up a little as well. Fina definitely felt floaty after all the saucers of rice wine she'd had before Vyse had swiped it away and remarking that he was _'cutting her off.'_ The rest of the crew would be returning to the ship, but the Emperor had been kind enough to put the four of them up in a small cottage for visiting dignitaries by the northern side of the interior wall. "How do you think dinner went? Are we still their favorite Westerners or did we end up wrecking everything?"

Enrique chuffed and stopped by the edge of the water, staring at the swans idling out on the surface of the pond. "Considering their obvious dislike of Daccat, I imagine that we were going to suffer some hurt feelings regardless. Still, it could have gone worse." The blonde-haired prince in exile looked over to Fina and smiled. "You seem to have a gift for smoothing ruffled feathers, Lady Fina."

"When it is called for. And other times, the feathers just need ruffling." Fina replied, winking at him. She frowned after, unable to keep her mind off of what worried her the most. "But I wish that the Emperor had let us keep the Blue Moon Crystal. It's why we came here."

"It is a national treasure to them." Enrique pointed out. "It is understandable that the Emperor would be loathe to part with it. Though, I know that answer does not satisfy."

"It doesn't." Fina said. "Enrique, we've _told you_ of what we've been through, but you weren't there. Two times now, two times out of two, someone else has taken the Moon Crystals and then betrayed us and themselves. The first was Belleza in disguise, who wanted to 'hold it' right before her troopers ambushed us. The second time, the High Priest Isapa knew where it was all along, sent us on a meaningless scavenger hunt, and took it himself so the king could summon Grendel. Both times, we barely survived. The second time, other people got hurt in the process, and the jungle was torn up from the fighting."

"Fina." Aika uttered, worry in her eyes as she stepped over and took the Silvite's hand. "It's all right. It'll be all right."

"No, it won't be!" Fina insisted, the worry she'd been holding onto all day finally bubbling out of her. The self-control ruined by all the rice wine they'd been given at dinner finally broke, and Aika pulled her in, wrapping her in a tight hug that pressed their bosoms together and made her ribs creak. Fina struggled for all of two seconds before she gave in and just let Aika hold her. "Every time. Every time." She repeated numbly.

Aika sighed and loosened her arms, pulling back far enough that she could kiss her nose and then her lips with delicate pecks. "Do you really think that the Emperor is going to fly up to Mount Kazai and wake that _thing_ up? Isapa and King Ixa'taka did it out of desperation. Belleza was just a _bitch_ who didn't want to kill us herself and felt like making a statement. Who does the Emperor have to fear?"

"I know. I _know,_ Aika, but I'm still worried." Fina confessed to her lover. She searched the other woman's soft brown eyes, the fire in them banked to low and comforting embers. "Maybe nothing will happen and we'll get lucky for once. But something _could_ happen. And Bluheim wasn't like Recumen or Grendel. Bluheim could _fly."_

Vyse was behind her, embracing her the moment after she uttered that horrible thought. "It's not going to happen." He said steadily, kissing the side of her cheek and setting his chin on her shoulder. Fina's eyes fluttered shut. She was being held by Vyse and Aika. She was safe here. She was home here. "And even if it did, you and Aika have been working on the Moonstone Cannon. It's more powerful, more focused than it was when we blew a hole in the Grand Fortress. Push comes to shove, we'll fight it. We've fought Gigas before."

"We could never put a dent in them before." Fina reminded him weakly, and felt herself tremble. They might be able to now, she knew that, but she was afraid to put it to the test. The Gigas were the living weapons of the Old World, beasts so terrible that the Rains of Destruction had fallen to punish their makers for their hubris. If the _Delphinus_ was a ship strong enough to kill a Gigas, would that not also be cause for the Moons to exact their dreadful punishment again?

She heard the footsteps of Enrique nearby, hovering close but not willing to draw next to her, to them. "Does the Emperor seem the sort to risk his destruction in such an act of foolishness, Lady Fina?" The exiled prince asked her. Fina mutely shook her head. "Then allay your fears. You are not on this quest alone. You have your - your loves with you. And you have me. Your 'Uncle Ilchymis' and everyone else on board the crew as well."

"We're _here,_ Princess." Aika insisted, kissing her lips again. Harder than before, though still just as brief. "Please. _Please,_ calm down. Open your eyes. Breathe." Fina did so, gasping and feeling her lungs burning as her eyes shot open. She knew this feeling. It was a panic attack, and there were traces of silver light gleaming all around them.

She'd lost control of her magic, and it had blossomed out of her, fluxing wildly against an unseen and unreal threat.

There were tears in Aika's eyes as the redhead looked at her. "It'll be okay." Aika whispered to her, and kissed her again. This time, Fina finally returned it. "It'll be okay."

"Let go, baby." Vyse encouraged her, strong where Fina was shivering and Aika was fearful. Strong because he needed to be, strong where she was weak, where Aika struggled.

There was always one of them able to stand and hold the others up, and Fina sobbed and crumpled her face into Aika's chest. She let go of her magic, let go of her fears, and let them hold her tight.

"My heart." Fina whispered, when she could speak again, drawing in the smell and the feel of Aika and Vyse around her. Aika raised her head up by the chin and kissed the tears away from her face. "My dear heart." The Silvite repeated, a prayer to her fire-haired lover, and reached behind her, holding Vyse's head to her shoulder. "My Pirate."

"Our Princess." Aika got out, smiling through her own tears. "You okay?" Fina nodded her head, and Enrique made a noise that made them all turn to look at the Valuan royal.

He watched from an arm's length away, something soft and understanding and longing in his eyes. "I see it now." He confessed. "I - what you three have, it's…"

"Saucy?" Aika suggested.

"Beautiful?" Fina offered.

Enrique shook his head. "It's _perfect."_ Fina blinked as he shook his head and turned away. She realized what his longing was. It wasn't attraction to any of them, but a softer jealousy for the bond that they had, the trust and the love between them.

Vyse and Aika were silent, and Fina didn't quite know what to say herself, and so said nothing. In the silence that followed, their ears all had them turning in the same direction to a distant disturbance by the entrance to their guest house.

It sounded like an argument.

* * *

It was an argument, one that was between the Princess Moegi and Muraji Kurowei, the Chief Advisor's son. The four of them were stealthy enough in their approach that Fina was able to overhear it while everyone else settled for seeing how Moegi flinched and tried to look away while Muraji leered and boasted that she would soon be his wife and that he and his father would rule. Fina overheard the response, when Moegi snapped back at him that he would never rule so long as _Daigo was alive._

The Silvite passed that along to the others, or started to, when Muraji's hand snapped out and clamped down around Moegi's wrist, tugging her closer as she yelped in pain. She struggled against him as he leaned in to kiss her possessively, trying to shove him back, and then Muraji _slapped her._

They all moved faster at that, but the speed of Fina and Aika and Vyse was _nothing_ compared to how Enrique blazed across the courtyard, rushing in and tearing Muraji's hand off of her arm before he decked the pompous little bastard hard enough to knock him to the ground and send his tall black hat flying a full body length away from him.

Fina and her lovers caught up to them in time to see Enrique stand between the gaping Moegi and the stunned and cowering Muraji. There was rage burning in the prince's eyes, and he had a hand resting on the hilt of his sword

"You know, for as much as your people claim to love _honor,_ you certainly don't show it." Enrique snarled at the man. "Vyse has the Code of the Blue Rogues, but long before I took the Oath, I pledged to live chivalrously. For what you just did, I should strike you down or challenge you to a duel. A real man never strikes a defenseless woman."

Daigo, frantic, yelled back at him even as he scooted away. _"She is to be my wife, you Western interloper!"_ Fina bit her lip and looked to Moegi, whose face was ashen, and translated it.

Aika gasped, Vyse growled a little, and Enrique bared his teeth. "She isn't your wife _yet."_ The prince snapped, and drew two inches of his blade out of its scabbard. "Leave. Now."

Translated or not, the intent of the message was clear enough and Muraji scrambled to run away, grabbing for his hat as he did so. He shouted at them as he did so.

_"Your Western friends can't protect you, Moegi! The prince is exiled, you are all alone! I won't forget this insult!"_

Fina and Aika were at Moegi's side in an instant, while Vyse and Enrique stood vigil side by side until Muraji had run out of view. Then Enrique exhaled, slammed his rapier back into its scabbard, and turned to Moegi. His blue eyes were full of his concern for her.

"Are you all right, your highness?" Enrique asked her gently. She wasn't, they all knew it, and Fina was relieved when Enrique took the initiative. "Please. Come inside. Aika, Fina, can you…"

"On it." Aika nodded, looking over to the other man in their party. "Vyse? Start some tea."

"Please, you do not have to…" Moegi started, shaking her head delicately back and forth. She stopped and let her eyes go wide when Enrique's fingertips traced the side of her face, the bruise where Muraji had slapped her.

"Please. Let us help you." He begged her. She stared at him, and kept staring until Vyse coughed lightly, then finally came around and allowed Fina and Aika to walk her in.

Five minutes later, the bruise was gone, healed up by a careful application of green healing magic by Aika while Fina had seen to mending her voluminous outer garments. In a luxurious living room with ornate wooden furniture and decorations, Fina sat the still reeling princess between herself and Aika on the largest frameless mattress, while Enrique and Vyse brought a pair of chairs to sit facing them. Mugs of steaming tea were held by everyone, a comfort and a curtain rolled into one. Moegi gripped her tea in both hands and kept her eyes glued to the floor.

"I'm sorry." Moegi apologized to them. "I don't...um. _Didn't._ Mean to put you in that position."

"I could hardly stand by and let that miserable cur strike you with impunity." Enrique said earnestly. "My own standards of conduct prohibit it." Enrique made a self-effacing smirk and looked down at his mug of green tea. "Not that many people follow the code of chivalry anymore. Not in the Empire." Moegi frowned and made to speak, and he quickly corrected himself. "The Valuan Empire. Not yours, milady."

Moegi blinked a few times, looked away from him. "Not many here, also."

"Does that happen often?" Aika asked the princess bluntly. "That sonofabitch popping you a fresh one?"

Moegi winced. "No. He does not hit before. _Did not."_

Fina frowned at the precision in those words. "Because he didn't have to. Did he." Moegi's head shot up and she stared at Fina. The Silvite found apology an easy thing to emote. "How long has your marriage to Minister Kurowei's son been arranged?"

"After…" Moegi started, then bit her lip and raised her cup of tea, taking a suspiciously long drink. Fina glanced to Enrique and to Vyse and Aika with quick turns of her eyes, never moving her neck, and she saw that they all had the same look of gentle understanding. Vyse nodded at her.

So. They were leaving it to her then. Fina found she was okay with it. She took strength in that Vyse and Aika both felt her capable of handling the talk with the right amount of delicacy, that they, and to some degree Enrique, trusted her with it.

She was not _useless,_ but when she looked at Moegi, there were so many cues in how the slightly older girl sat and held her teamug and smiled a too distant smile that reminded Fina of how she had once been.

"You are _not_ useless." Fina started out, earning another confused and startled gaze from the Yafutoman royal. Fina kept her eyes locked on Moegi's, not blinking, denying the other girl the chance to look away. She kept her pinned in place with her stare. "I know what it looks like and how it feels to be beaten down by circumstances. I was there myself once. Yafutoma is a patriarchal society, isn't it? You don't have much in the way of responsibilities. Being our official translator was just fortunate circumstance, wasn't it?"

Moegi nibbled at her lip. "Why study Western ways?" She countered. "All said, pointless. Useless. But I studied. Was _different._ Was something that was _mine._ Mine and…" The small spark of light in her eyes dimmed, and she finally closed her eyes. Not in shame.

Because whatever was there was too painful. Yet Fina knew she had to force it.

"Who is the prince Muraji yelled about?" Fina asked her gently. "And why is he exiled?"

"I cannot." Moegi choked out. "We cannot talk of him. It is forbidden."

"Forbidden by _who?"_ Fina pressed. Moegi's hands gripped her teamug so tightly that it almost masked how they were shaking. Almost. It was enough of a giveaway for Fina to connect the missing dots. "Your father forbade it."

The sick and cracked little laugh Moegi let out afterwards was a dead giveaway. She set her mug of tea down and shook her head again.

"You don't have to say anything." Fina told her gently. "You don't have to _do_ anything."

"Muraji will be my husband." Moegi got out thickly. "I will not rule. My son must."

"What if you don't have a son, though?" Aika questioned her. "Why do you have to marry that rotten bastard who _hits you_ when you seem perfectly capable of ruling yourself?!"

Enrique came up to his feet suddenly, stiff as a rail. "Because you have no choice. Or rather, your father doesn't." The exiled prince said, the color draining out of him. "How much power does Minister Kurowei have over him?"

Moegi stared at Enrique, her breathing becoming labored. It was another reaction that Fina knew all too well, a panic attack brought on when somebody had driven too close to the truth. She jerked up to her feet, and Enrique quickly held out a hand to stabilize her when she stumbled. "No, you don't - you don't have to answer that. I'm sorry." He quickly apologized.

Fina felt the moment that Moegi broke, because she crumbled into Enrique's arms and sobbed once. Just once, a slight little hiccup filled with every broken shard of glass inside of her before she swallowed it back, went still, and rose back up to her feet.

"You left." Moegi said to Enrique through dull words and duller eyes. "I cannot. There is _no one else left."_ She gave him another sad and broken smile. "Kikue had brothers. Sisters. I am only me."

She stepped back and offered a gentle bow, then turned for the door. Enrique's hand fell on her elbow, and she stilled.

"Let me escort you back. Please, your highness."

Fina rose as well, the grim conversation having restored her sobriety. "We both will, Princess Moegi." Enrique side-eyed her and Fina shrugged. "Courtly rules, correct? Don't you require an escort?"

"A chaperone." The corner of Enrique's mouth quirked up. "Close. But yes. It would be more proper if she was not alone with a man that she isn't…"

_That she isn't promised to,_ Fina finished the sentence in her mind. Moegi seemed like she would protest it further, but the girl had run out of steam and any fight she had in her was gone. She nodded her head once in response. So while Vyse and Aika cleaned up and got things ready for bed, Fina and Enrique took Princess Moegi back to the royal palace, escorting her to the door of her private chambers. Of Muraji, whom Enrique had been so worried about running into a second time, there was no sign. Moegi turned, her face back to its mask of a placid smile, and bowed to them both for their time before disappearing inside. Their walk back to the cottage at the northern edge of the compound was quiet until they were clear of the royal palace. Only then did Enrique broach the companionable silence between them.

"How can she stand it?" He asked, miserable and bitter. "We could help her!"

"And what would that prove?" Fina asked him. "She was _warning us_ not to interfere."

Enrique thought about it. "Because they have the Blue Moon Crystal still. And if we did something rash, we...We'd never get it from them." He sighed. "Damnit."

An inkling of an idea, something that Fina had been idling away with all through the banquet clicked into place at how frustrated he seemed.

"You like her, don't you?"

"Does it matter?" Enrique countered. "She's _engaged._ She's engaged and there's no way out of it for her. That Advisor must have more power than it seemed at first glance, if she isn't arguing against the arrangement." Fina kept walking and kept looking at him, patient as she could be when it was for something important. Enrique struggled and finally broke. "Fine. _Yes,_ Fina. I admire her." He took off his beret and ran a hand through his short mop of blond hair with another ragged sigh. "I _want_ to take her away from this. I don't know how she can stand it. I don't know how she hasn't _broken_ under the weight of it. Why hasn't she left? Why does she stay?"

"Because there is no alternative for her." Fina told him. "You had one. She didn't."

"I had an al…" Enrique started, then snapped his jaw shut. "I had you." Fina nodded. "And she doesn't have us?"

"If she wanted to burn every bridge? Yes." Fina agreed. "But she was telling you something else. If you were listening."

"I was listening!" Enrique sputtered. "She didn't want us risking our status over her! But I don't understand why she puts up with all of this! Even if she doesn't have us, what is keeping her here?"

Fina wondered how Enrique could be so skilled of a fighter, a growing presence in statecraft in his own right, and not see the subtext in Moegi's body language and words. Perhaps it was because he was a man and didn't know how to read women. No. No, that wasn't it.

"She's not like you." Fina explained. "You look at her and you think her circumstances and yours are the same. They aren't." Fina could see it so clearly, because for all that Moegi _was_ a princess and Vyse and Aika called Fina their Princess, it wasn't titles that defined them. It was their role.

They walked on the bridge that crossed over the pond which led to the patch of land that their cottage was on. Enrique caught Fina's hand and stopped her at the midway point, and the Silvite turned and looked up at him. He was waiting for the rest of the explanation.

"You saw nothing in Valua worth preserving or saving from the inside. You came with us because the only way to restore your homeland is through stopping the Admiralty and destroying the Armada, and we were the only viable solution. But to Moegi, who is the _sole descendant_ of the royal line because of an exiled prince whom I suspect is this Daigo she doesn't speak of, Yafutoma isn't broken. To their culture, to their experience, all is exactly as it should be. A role that wasn't meant to be hers has been placed on her shoulders. She is suffering through it as well as she can, for the love of her homeland and her people. She is almost breaking under that burden, but for her people, she endures. As much as she wants to run away from her responsibilities, she stays and she endures. It took strength for you to walk away, Enrique. It's taking so much more strength for her to _stay."_

Enrique absorbed that information with the growing realization and awe of someone who was seeing something so far out of their experience that they'd never considered it before.

"I didn't know." He confessed. "I'm sorry, Fina."

"Why are you sorry for me?" She questioned him. "I'm not the one being forced to marry someone I love to keep my homeland from falling apart."

"No. You aren't." Enrique admitted. "But this quest to retrieve the Moon Crystals wasn't your burden to bear either. Was it?" Fina blinked, wondering if she had ever confessed that truth to him. Enrique didn't seem too worked over by it. "No. Your lovers didn't tell me. But it's the only thing that makes sense. He's a Silvite as well, he must be. How else did the Armada know how to find you? How else did they know about these Moon Crystals? Don't carry that burden alone. You have Vyse and Aika helping you. And you have me. You have all of us." He looked suitably chastened, fixing his hat again and looking away in shame. "I wish we could save her, though."

"She told us not to. You can't save everyone, Enrique."

"That doesn't mean we stop trying." Enrique insisted, finding a hint of his old stubbornness again. "We never stop trying. Blue Rogues don't leave anyone behind, isn't that the line?"

Fina slipped her arm around his and pulled him towards the guest house, smiling thinly. "Never change, Enrique. You are a good man, and a better prince than Valua realizes."

He snorted. "I left. I'm no prince, not any longer."

Fina could have argued that point, but she let it lie. She was full, she was sleepy, and she desperately needed her partners holding her close if she was to have a peaceful evening. Something must have shown on her face, because Enrique let out another sigh.

"Please don't partake in any horizontal refreshments while I'm in the same cottage as you three." She hadn't intended to, but thinking about it ended up making Fina blush and giggle anyways. Enrique needn't have worried. When they returned, Fina got changed for bed and easily slipped into the two thin mattresses that Aika and Vyse had shoved together for the three of them, finding a place with Aika resting in the middle. They were drowsy in minutes, and she fell asleep listening to the redhead's heartbeat thrumming against her ear.

* * *

_186 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

Their good night's rest met a quick end early the next morning while they were having breakfast. Moegi came charging into the guest house with terrified eyes and told them that more foreign ships, _Western_ ships had just flown in. A full dozen and a half all said, made of iron. Fina's heart lurched in her chest and she couldn't speak as Vyse and Enrique had looked to one another in some silent message between them and lunged out of their chairs, rice and grilled fish and fruit bowls ignored as they ran for the rest of their gear and their weapons. In a rush that would have made any military instructor proud, armor and outer clothes were thrown on, swords were strapped to their belts, and Aika strapped the satchel containing the two precious Moon Crystals that they had fought so hard for over her shoulder.

As they cleared the inner walls of the royal palace, Fina was screaming in her head that it was all happening again. Even before they cleared the outer walls of Yafutoma City that separated the multi-leveled, many-island settlement from its harbor, she _knew_ who had come. She didn't know _how_ but she knew who.

They passed through the walls and stared into the face of eighteen ships of the Valuan Armada, all surrounding the harbor with their guns pointed at the city, and more pointed at the _Delphinus._

"Damn! They've got the whole city surrounded!" Vyse snarled, looking towards their ship with worry clashing against his anger. "The _Delphinus!_ Our crew!" They watched in horror as the guns, none of them pointed in a useful direction with the Armada parked off of the stern, remained silent. They watched as three smaller transport boats from the Valuan frigates and battleships came flying in towards the mighty blue ship.

"They're going to board it." Aika sounded dully.

"Of course we're going to board it. It's _our ship."_ A calm and amused feminine voice called down from the bottom of the steps. The four of them turned to the source and recognized the presence of Admiral Belleza, standing triumphant in her red uniform with one arm folded over the other as she smiled at them. "That it was _stolen_ by a band of rebel air pirates who kidnapped the crown prince as well does not suddenly mean that it is yours." She glanced off to the side. "A new coat of paint or no."

Fina had only half her attention focused on Belleza. The rest of it, after catching sight of the other Valuan admiral who had come ashore with Belleza, had been fixed directly on Aika. He wore a blue vest and kept his brown hair slicked back in an impressive pompadour, and the front of his trousers bore a comically large lock. He'd seemed smug until he saw Aika, and then his face had gone pale. Aika's posture and her face was a rictus of rage. Enrique and Vyse weren't faring much better. Fina didn't understand why until Enrique spoke.

"Admiral Vigoro. You're alive. How _unfortunate." _Enrique had always been polite or filled with noble vengeance. The seething politeness he used then felt so out of place.

Fina sucked in a breath of air and whirled back around, baring her teeth. Vigoro.

_Vigoro._ The miserable son of a bitch who had tried to rape Aika. She'd burned him horribly for attempting it after throwing off his mind control.

Aika's aura flared out brightly, terrible flames were summoned up in her hands in an instant. She was more than willing to finish the job, and Fina knew that she would _hold him down herself_ to help Aika do it. Vyse looked like he wanted to do so much worse to the man.

The united front discomfited Belleza and the troopers standing behind the admirals, but the sight of Aika powering up and making the air distort around her from the heat was enough to make Vigoro yelp and flinch away, stepping back behind Belleza.

"So, Vigoro." Vyse drawled, his hands drifting lazily to his swords. "How's your bait and tackle these days?"

Shaking and now embarrassed at his reaction, Vigoro straightened up and scowled back at the Blue Rogue. Belleza interceded, holding an arm out to the side. "Please, there's no need for these posturing displays." She tutted. "Admiral Vigoro was severely injured during your escape, Captain Vyse." The red-haired woman paused. "I believe that, in spite of medical treatment, he was rendered sterile. And impotent."

**"Good."** Aika hissed, powering down a little, but still keeping the fire in her hands. For a moment, Fina thought she saw a trace of sympathy in the older woman's eyes, but it was quickly washed away for formality when the armor of the troopers behind them clanked while they shifted their weight.

She bowed at them, turning her eyes downward as she did, and rose looking at Enrique. "Prince Enrique du Valua. It is good to see you hale and hearty. Your mother feared that these pirates were abusing you."

Enrique breathed. "I left, Admiral Belleza. Why do you still call me _Prince_ when I am surely labeled a traitor now?"

"Just because you are misguided, my prince, does not diminish your role or the responsibilities you were born to." Belleza told him.

"How did you even _get_ here?" Vyse demanded. "You sure as hell didn't come through the Dark Rift. That was Gregorio's Fleet we tussled with by Esperanza."

Belleza smiled. "Hello again, handsome. You're still easy on the eyes." Fina's eye twitched and she pulled up closer to Vyse, noting that Aika did the same. Their shift didn't go unnoticed by Belleza, who smiled a little wider before she tempered her expression again. "True. Our task force had a different objective in coming here than chasing you down. We got here by blowing a hole through the Great Stone Reef at the edge of Ixa'taka's western airspace. A little tip provided by Lord Galcian's young protege. I'm rather surprised that it panned out."

One hit after another, that was what this was. Endless agony. Ramirez.

_Ramirez had told the Valuans how to come here. _He'd told them how to reach the lands under the Blue Moon in the most direct and violent way possible.

Aika went to draw her boomerang, but Vyse cut her off. "Aika. Don't." He warned her evenly.

"But Vyse, she…!"

"We're surrounded. The harbor is _blockaded_ and…" Vyse turned to look back at the _Delphinus,_ closing his eyes when he saw Valuan troopers pull the foredeck hatch open and go running inside. "If you hurt my people, Belleza…"

"They will be arrested and processed under the rules of Valuan Maritime Law." Belleza told him. Vyse's jaw ticked, and Enrique hissed at her.

"You _will_ treat them with respect. Vyse and the crew of the _Delphinus_ are here and are protected by the sovereign rule of the Emperor of this land, who has declared us all _honored guests."_

Belleza blinked at his assertion, taken aback for a second or two before she recovered and smirked. "I see. Then it is good that _we_ have come as representatives of the Valuan Empire. The same protections apply to us also." She looked over her shoulder briefly before amending, "I will make sure that my fellow admiral here doesn't go wandering off and keeps his hands to himself."

"I spared your life." Vyse spat the words out at her, barely holding himself back. Enrique put a hand to his shoulder, anchoring him from lunging ahead like the strain in his arms and his shoulders said he wanted to.

"Yes. You did." Belleza agreed, blowing Vyse a kiss and then grabbing Vigoro by the front of his uniform, dragging him behind her. "If you'll excuse us, we have an audience with the Emperor to see to."

The four parted as the two admirals walked by, and there was a moment of high tension when Vigoro's eyes slid over to Aika.

The red-haired Chief Engineer of the _Delphinus_ had never looked so cold and emotionless as she did looking back at him, and it made Fina shiver.

"You ever show your face around me again, _Admiral,_ and I'll fucking finish what I started." Aika promised him darkly. Vigoro somehow found a paler shade of white to turn, and he quickly scrambled away. The rest of the Valuan soldiers followed, ignoring the four of them completely.

"What do we do?" Fina whispered, when they stood alone in the harbor. Unable to return to their ship, unable to rescue their friends and comrades. Unable to take the fight to Valua, who had checkmated every avenue of escape and stood with guns pointed at the city.

"Interfering with an official delegation would not go well for us." Enrique cautioned them all bitterly. "There is naught we can do but wait and see how it all shakes out. We should return to - to our guest quarters. They're going to retake the ship, but we could at least beg the aid of the Emperor to have our crew retur…" Enrique broke off, covering his mouth when he found he couldn't finish the sentence. Angry, frustrated tears filled his eyes. As if Valua would allow clemency for _declared Blue Rogues._

He couldn't finish the sentence because he knew it was a lie.

They all knew it was.

* * *

_Royal Guest House_

_The Royal Palace_

The feeling of _waiting_ and being _trapped_ and _not knowing_ how all of their friends and crewmates aboard the _Delphinus_ were being treated only ratcheted up the nausea Fina felt on top of yesterday's disappointments and the morning's horrors. She could feel the jitters brought on by the loss of her usual morning coffee as well, something that the most potent Yafutoman black tea didn't come close to matching for caffeine content. Vyse kept running a small whetstone over his cutlasses and glancing at the door, Aika paced the room like a feral cat, her shoulders bunched up and her twin pigtails jutting out as straight as a tabby's tail would be. Enrique was leaned up against the wall with a clear sight line to the door of their cottage, the calmest of them all on the surface just in how he held himself and how he didn't reach for a weapon.

Fina knew his tells, though. For Enrique, who had grown up in a world where poise and posture were necessary to survive the intrigues of a royal Court, you didn't watch his stance. He had taken his lessons in swordfighting and applied it too well to his daily life. He always looked relaxed on the surface, because he needed to _be relaxed_ to maintain his reaction time and his awareness. For Enrique, the best measure of his true feelings were his eyes. And they were blazing.

"Relax, Aika." Enrique told the still pacing redhead. "It's only been half an hour since they were formally announced to the court."

"Oh, so we have to wait for a couple of hours before Admiral McRapey and that smug _bitch_ get around to reminding the Emperor that they've got an entire flotilla of guns pointed at his home and that they aren't making _requests_ but are issuing _demands?!"_ Aika snapped at him. She had one hand on her satchel, holding it and the two Moon Crystals within protectively close to her waist.

"Aika." Vyse said wearily. He sheathed his off-hand cutlass and stowed the whetstone, then walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. "We couldn't have known. We couldn't have known that they'd be able to even get here."

_I should have expected it,_ Fina told herself bitterly. Because they had Ramirez. Damn him, what was he _thinking? _Why was he working with the very people that he, and she, had been tasked to stop in their ambitions? They were questions she had no answers for, because Ramirez had never given her one. He didn't smile, or greet her warmly. It had been like he was an entirely different person. Or maybe he'd always been like that. Maybe she had just never seen it, blinded by fond childhood memories of having just one other person even close to her age to play with.

Enrique pushed himself off of the wall, blinking his eyes rapidly. "Something's happening." He said, turning towards the door and setting a hand on his blade. Fina narrowed her eyes and summoned up Cupil, who took the form of a hovering blade close to her hand, and Vyse and Aika readied their weapons as well. Now that she was listening for it, Fina could hear the sound of racing footsteps. The faint rattle of the loose plate armor that the Yafutoman guards wore. The cadence of angry grunts and gasping breathing.

The doors started to slide open, and Moegi dashed inside. Her clothes were rumpled and her face was one of absolute panic.

Not a second later the doors burst inward when a guard with a spear stabbed through his back crashed into the framed paper entryway, destroying it completely while two others came in behind him. The princess turned and cried out as she fell backwards, helpless, with the two men closing in on her, swords held in their off-hand while they both reached.

Vyse and Enrique were on them in seconds, and neither wasted any words. The Blue Rogue decapitated the first, and Enrique's blade avoided the armor plating of the second, stabbing cleanly through the other guard's throat. Fina raced to Moegi's side with Aika, and they helped her stand back up.

Moegi was dazed and terrified and she didn't respond when Fina squeezed her arm. The dying gurgles of the guard who had been speared and thrown through the doors had more of an effect, and the princess tore her arm away from the Silvite, going and kneeling down beside the man.

_"Pr...princess. Y - you must...flee."_ The guard gasped, bright blood on his lips.

Moegi shook her head. _"I can't leave you!" _She turned to Fina, panicked. "Heal him! Please!"

The guard gurgled again, and looked up to Fina. The Silvite sucked in sharply when she saw his glazed eyes take note of her, and he slowly shook his head.

_"Pr - protect the princess. Run. __**Run."**_ He begged. He begged, exhaled, and slumped dead on the floor. Moegi's lip quivered.

"What in the Moon's name is going on?" Aika demanded. "Why are your guards trying to hurt you?!"

Moegi breathed in and out, staring down at the guard who presumably had died defending her. It took Fina a moment to realize why she wasn't responding.

Moegi had never watched someone die in front of her before.

Fina grabbed at Moegi's arm, spinning her around away from the bodies. "Moegi!" She yelled at the young woman, loud enough to make her recoil and snap her head away. Loud enough that the Yafutoman royal saw _her_ instead of bodies.

Moegi blinked, and tears filled her eyes. _"We were betrayed."_ She choked out, reverting to Yafutoman before she shook her head and remembered her audience. "The - the woman told my father to surrender. To be a _vassal_ state. To Valua."

"Moons damn it." Enrique uttered under his breath.

"He refused. Then K...Kangan."

Fina could see it all in her mind's eye. "Kangan Kurowei betrayed you. He sided with the Valuans."

"So many of the guards." Moegi kept going, forcing herself through it. As if it were impossible to stop. "They _turned_ on us. They killed the guards who didn't. They...they _captured my father."_ She looked over her shoulder to the guard lying dead on the floor. "I ran. He defended me."

"We can't stay. We don't have the force or the firepower to stop them here." Vyse said to Moegi, moving to the table with Enrique and picking it up, dragging it to the entrance to serve as a barricade. "Moegi, we need to get you _out_ of here."

"No." Moegi shuddered, looking at Vyse and Enrique. "We must get _you_ out. They take your ship. They come for you next." Moegi looked to Aika, and to the satchel she carried. "They want _those."_ She shook off Fina's hands, and the Silvite could hear the sound of angry shouts and heavy footfalls picking up outside, echoing across the still waters of the pond.

Moegi was hurting, she was betrayed, but just as Fina had known, there was strength in her. Strength enough to hold herself together. The princess walked to the back of the cottage, to where the rear wall lay adjacent to the stone fence that surrounded the compound of the royal palace. With purposeful movements, she accessed a hidden catch, releasing the lock on a concealed doorway as the panel recessed onto a rail.

Her eyes wet and her hands shaking, Moegi turned and gestured to them all. "We must go." And go they went, slipping into the secret escape passage, closing it behind them.

"Is known only to the royal family." Moegi told them as they walked down the hidden corridor within the outer wall, coming closer and closer to falling apart. In the dim light cast out by Cupil, who hovered above them in his normal form like a magical lantern, Moegi led them on, refusing to look back. "Is small ship at end. You must take. You must _go."_

"Not without you!" Enrique insisted.

"Yes, without me." Moegi forced out, gasping. "They will not stop until I am catched. Caught. _**FUCK!"**_ She finally screamed out in Yafutoman, shattering and crumbling to her knees right before the stairs.

They stopped, and Enrique knelt down beside her. He took her hand as she trembled and gasped, falling to pieces in front of them. Not that Fina could blame her. After being warned about Valua by Westerners who openly declared themselves only a step above _air pirates,_ after being confronted with the power of another empire who knew nothing but greed and avarice, Moegi had been witness to the treachery of one of their own; her father's most prominent advisor. The Yafutoman guard corrupted and turned against the royal family, her people in peril and now destined to suffer under the boot of an external force with no sense of justice or _honor._

Her brother exiled. Her father captured, his life in jeopardy. And Moegi, on the run with the world falling down around her, trying to do one thing right. Trying to deny Valua all of its prizes by getting them and their two Moon Crystals away. By saving them.

Anywhere else, she likely would have protested it when Enrique drew her into his arms and held her tight, helping her to ride out the anguish she was feeling. But she was alone and in the dark, and there was nobody from her own people there to witness it or to judge her.

Just four young Westerners standing against the storm.

Enrique stroked his hand through her long, dark hair. "Blue Rogues leave nobody behind." He said, his voice thick with everything he was feeling as well. "We are _not_ leaving you behind. Okay? You have to come with us. This isn't the end, Moegi. We're not going to let Valua win. I _swear_ it. We are coming back here and we're going to throw them all out and we're going to save your people and ours. But right now, I need you to get up. I need you to keep running. Can you do that?"

She was still shuddering, but she was finally coming back around. Moegi finally nodded.

"Where can we go?" Vyse asked her as Enrique helped her back up to her feet. "We're in your domain, your highness. Tell us where we can go to regroup."

"There is one place." Moegi said, wiping at her eyes. "An island. In the High Sky. Far north. Exile Island." She looked at them all. "My brother there. Daigo. Daigo Tokugawa." She pressed her lips together. "The _true_ heir."

* * *

The 'ship' at the end of the secret escape tunnel resembled a bell on a platform, or perhaps a large torch or a small lighthouse. One look at it was enough for Fina to realize that it carried no means of defense or attack to it, and that it was meant purely as a leisure vessel. One not meant to travel fast. Still, a ship was a ship, and soon they were rising up and up and _up_ and away from the besieged palace and the blockaded city. Nobody had been looking for it, or its silver-blue coloration blended in too well with the partly cloudy skies around Yafutoma that morning. There was no sign of pursuit or recognition of their means of escape, no airborne sentries patrolling the north end of the island where the royal palace stood.

While Enrique kept an eye on Moegi, keeping close to her side, Vyse and Aika used his telescopic goggle and a collapsible spyglass from her satchel respectively to size up the damage caused by Valua while Fina guided the ship away from danger.

"There are Valuan troops everywhere." Vyse murmured.

"It's an invasion." Aika added.

"Shock and awe." Enrique explained quietly from his spot on the cushions next to Moegi. "Standard tactic for an armed ground force disembarking from the Armada. Swarm and overwhelm the local populations with a massive contingent, hunt down and neutralize any dissident elements, and steadily withdraw troopers until a smaller patrol force proportional to one-sixth or one-eighth of the population is left to maintain order and suppress future rebellious elements. Belleza would have adapted it if she turned the Emperor's Chief Advisor, which she could have well done several days in advance before this morning." Fina couldn't help but think of their last encounter with Belleza in the desert of Nasr, how easily she'd been able to sneak into Maramba under a false identity to gain their trust. "It's her style to handle these kind of coups in the quickest and most bloodless ways possible. If Minister Kurowei has taken control of the local militia, that may factor into the eventual Valuan deployment numbers."

Moegi choked out another sob, and Enrique pulled her closer, stroking her back. "I'm sorry." He whispered, choking up himself. Even after all the times that Fina and the others had gotten on his case about not taking the responsibility for the things that his country and his people did when they _weren't following his orders,_ Enrique was still all too willing to let the blame for their evils weigh on his spirit. She didn't have the heart to correct him now. She doubted Moegi cared to hear it.

"I want to kill every. Last. One of them." Aika said numbly, walking over to Fina and handing the Silvite her spyglass. There was redness in her eyes, but she was holding herself together. There was still more rage in her red-haired lover than grief. Fina took the spyglass and used it to look down at the soldiers moving throughout the city, through the compound of the royal palace.

Fina watched as banners and flags bearing the Yafutoman heraldry and emblem were torn down, and canvas flags with the Valuan Imperial crest were hoisted in their place. She watched as the Yafutomans who had been so openly curious and cautiously inviting to the Blue Rogues before now ran for their lives as Valuan soldiers marched through the streets. She found herself glad that they were so high up. She didn't have to listen to the screams.

She watched as the bodies of Yafutoman soldiers and guards, the ones who must have remained loyal to the Emperor, were dragged out into the open and thrown into piles for later removal.

Fina could so easily understand why Aika hungered for wholesale slaughter.

"This doesn't end here." Vyse vowed, reaching up and tugging the side of his captain's hat down tighter onto his head. "Blue Rogues never give up."

"No. We don't." Fina agreed, collapsing the spyglass and looking to him. She saw fury in his eyes, the indomitable will of a man who seethed at the injustice of it, raged at his inability to stop it right there.

Stories were written of men with such eyes.

Fina broke her gaze away from him and took one last look down at Yafutoma, a city of striations and level and walls. All of which had fallen far too easily, by betrayal from within.

"I'm sorry." She heard Enrique whisper to Moegi, over and over and over again while the princess wept for all that she had lost in mere hours.

_"May you live in interesting times." _Fina heard Moegi rasp in the Yafutoman tongue. She'd said it before with an interested little smile on her face, had said that in her culture it was meant to be a curse but that she had thought of it more as a symbol of change.

Moegi spoke it with none of the optimism she had before, Fina realized. It had been a curse after all.


	33. Occupation(al) Hazards

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Thirty-Three: Occupation(al) Hazards**

_The Valuan Flagship _Lynx, _Fourth Fleet_

_188 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

Belleza awoke at the sound of faint knocking to the door of her stateroom. She took a moment to recall where she was, swept her blankets back and went to fetch her robe. Once she slipped it on, she turned back to the door. "Come in."

One of the female officers aboard the vessel came inside per her standing orders with a tray holding her breakfast and a pot of tea. Lieutenant Alvarez, Belleza recognized her. The woman with short-trimmed blond hair gave her a polite nod, but a flagging smile.

"Morning, admiral."

"Good morning." Belleza greeted her in turn. "What's happened?"

"Nothing critical." The lieutenant said, setting the tray down at her small table and pouring out a cup of black tea. "Nothing that can keep you from eating your breakfast."

Belleza sat down and reached for her tea, glancing at the tray of buttered toast, bacon, and the bowl of oatmeal with some trepidation. Standard fare for voyages, really, but what she wouldn't give for a proper bowl of _fruit._ The things she missed on extended tours of duty.

"Are you _handling me_ again, lieutenant?" Belleza asked, raising an eyebrow over the rim of her teacup as she paused between sips.

"Of course not, ma'am."

"Because I have told you that I'm watching my figure."

"Yes, ma'am." For _who_ went unsaid, but Belleza knew well enough that even being Valua's spymaster didn't make her immune from rumors either, and most everyone on her crew knew that Belleza tried to spend what little free time she had chasing after Galcian. Alvarez stared at her for two awkward seconds before proving that fact. "But if you don't mind my saying so, the Lord Admiral's back at the Grand Fortress overseeing repairs still. And you've got another full day lined up for yourself. You could let yourself have a proper breakfast for once. You're going to need it."

Belleza sighed. That was likely the truth. "Very well. Did my Vice Admiral have anything for the morning report?"

"Vice Admiral Rawlin's report stated that the ships of the combined 4th and 3rd Fleets are maintaining position, blockading the harbor. All inbound and outgoing vessels continue to be searched, but there remains no sign of Captain Vyse, his two cohorts, or the Crown Prince and Princess Moegi."

_Or the Moon Crystals,_ Belleza tacked on mentally.

"Very well. That will be all for now, lieutenant."

"Ma'am." Alvarez came to attention briefly, then walked out, taking the tray and the plate cover with her.

Belleza reached for one of the pieces of toast and ate it slowly as she looked out the window of her quarters. Through it, she watched as the morning light fell on Yafutoma City.

Lord Galcian was not the sort of man who tolerated fools for very long, but nor was he the sort who gave much concern to the methods used by the others in the Admiralty. Galcian cared only about results. Belleza, tempered by the pain of her childhood, used different methods than most would to achieve her goals.

Reach the continent under the Blue Moon. Overwhelm its defenders. Claim the land in the name of the empire and then take the Blue Moon Crystal. Vigoro and select ships of the 3rd Fleet had been paired with her in a subordinate role, but she preferred to keep him on standby. The delicate touch, the surgical strike were her trademarks. Of course, here in the unknown lands, there was no spy network she could rely on. No steady stream of gossip to make judgment calls with, no names or personalities to form a plan of attack. She'd gone in blind and snuck into Yafutoma on the smallest ship they had, parked it out of sight and then snuck into the city in the dead of night. A quick reconnaissance was all that she'd had time for, but it had been enough. Enough to realize that the _Delphinus_ had beaten them here, which meant that Vyse and his band were present. Enough to sneak into the palace while the city was reveling the night away and the guards were more relaxed than usual.

Enough to witness a skirmish between Prince Enrique and one of the natives over the matter of a dark-haired young woman dressed in finery, and to seek out the sulking suitor after he was chased off. Enough to, with the limited study of the more ancient tongue of the region that Galcian's protege Ramirez had seen fit to provide to her, converse in halting pidgin and see the opportunity.

Belleza smiled to think of how seamless the coup had been. To think that there had been such a highly-placed individual within the Court who had no qualms about deposing their ruler for his own benefit. It was the kind of advantage most spies only ever dreamed of. To be fair, it wasn't as though Kangan Kurowei had committed wholeheartedly to her plan. There were other Westerners, after all, and _their_ ship for all that it looked mighty, had sat harmlessly in the harbor for days while the most important people aboard it hared off on some fool's errand. When Belleza returned to Yafutoma the next morning with the full might of her task force arranged behind her, Kangan had quickly fallen in line. He would rule, but in a subordinate role. Not that Valua would care much about having a puppet in charge, it might make it easier to control the locals.

For all of her scheming and plotting, there had forever been one ironclad hallmark of her career; Belleza worked to minimize civilian casualties whenever possible. In that, she took great pride.

What she didn't feel pride for, and what continued to frustrate her days later, was that her near bloodless victory wasn't total. She had recaptured the _Delphinus._ She had taken Yafutoma, and the streets were patrolled by troopers who worked in tandem with Kangan's loyal soldiery. The resources of Yafutoma would, in time, be exploited and allow the Empire to tighten its grip on the world. Perhaps even retake Ixa'taka. What she hadn't done was to capture Vyse and his two female companions, or secure Prince Enrique or Princess Moegei. And the Blue Moon Crystal, the prize that had been their main purpose in coming, was nowhere to be found.

She frowned and picked up a piece of bacon, admitting to herself that it did taste quite wonderful to her growling stomach. Looking out of her window again, she watched the city full of walls for a few moments longer before diverting her gaze to the _Delphinus,_ still moored in the harbor.

Conquering the kingdom (She refused to think of it as an empire, there was only room on Arcadia for one empire and Valua was ascendant) beneath the Blue Moon had been a relatively easy and bloodless affair. She couldn't help but wonder if _keeping it_ would be exponentially harder. Especially with Vyse and his closest companions still free and at large.

Scowling, Belleza worked through the rest of her breakfast at a rapid pace. She'd sat idle for too long already. There was much work still to be done.

* * *

_Delphinus_

_Dining Hall_

One of the items on her agenda was to construct a proper psychological profile on Captain Vyse of the Blue Rogues, and his closest associates if possible. It was clear that they had a large influence on Prince Enrique, based on what little she'd seen of him before she and Vigoro had gone on to meet with the Emperor and begin the coup in earnest. She had a barebones draft from her time flying with them in Maramba, but it was horribly outdated now. It lacked the finer details to his motivations, his weaknesses, and his vices (Vyse's vices, she amusedly thought) that she _needed_ to figure out what the Blue Rogue would do next.

The last time she'd crossed paths with him, Belleza had gotten lucky. He'd been reliant on the ship and the aid of One-Armed Drachma, whose own weak point had allowed her to implement a haphazard, though still effective ruse. If only Drachma hadn't ended up coming back to save them…

_Something_ had changed Drachma's mind. Guilt, perhaps. Or was it something else?

With Drachma no longer in the Blue Rogue's company, she was left to look elsewhere for answers. Luckily, she wasn't short on prospective interviewees. They had taken an entire ship's worth of them, after all. She had already interviewed a few of the _Delphinus_ crew yesterday between her other commitments and duties, and she had more lined up for today and tomorrow. If you wanted to understand someone, you looked to their belongings, their habits, and the impressions they wrought on others.

It was with that in mind that she sat at one of the tables in the lavish dining hall, glancing up at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling and the other luxuries every so often while the guards shifted. A folder full of paper was nearby, and she had her inkwell and quill pen at the ready as the doors opened and her first interview of the day was brought in. Not in chains, unlike some of the others.

After all, there were many in the crew whom Admiral Belleza could not charge for the usual crimes of piracy. Like this one.

He was older, in his mid to late 40's even with padding for poor aging and bad habits. Though his clothes were clean, he insisted on wearing an old brown overcoat with epaulets; a hallmark of his time in the Valuan Navy. Not the Armada, that style of uniform had been phased out after King Mathias's death and the transition from _kingdom_ to _Empire._

"Ensign Don Juan Artours. I am Admiral Belleza of the 4th Fleet." Belleza greeted him pleasantly. Don glowered at her, but made no move to assault her. The guards that had escorted him in sat him down at the table, one of them reaching for the manacles hanging off his waist to tie him down, and Belleza held up a hand. "I don't think those will be necessary, crewman."

"Ma'am." The helmeted soldier said stiffly, taking two steps back from Don after releasing him, but lingering close just in case. To his credit, he didn't argue against the decision. If Don took note of the highly charitable act, he didn't show any reaction to it aside from another scowl.

"Please, relax." Belleza encouraged him. "Could I offer you something to eat? A glass of something to parch your thirst?"

Don folded his arms and stared back. "I ate with the other prisoners."

"Technically, Ensign, you're not a prisoner." Belleza reminded him. "You, and the rest of the survivors from Esperanza have committed no crime against the Empire. From other accounts I have collected, it is clear that you and the others who joined up with the _Delphinus_ did so after Vyse's engagement with the 2nd Fleet. There is only one charge that we can level at you, that of signing on with a known air pirate and wanted criminal. But, I would be inclined to overlook it."

"In exchange for?" Don drawled.

"Information." Belleza explained. "Nothing indiscrete. Nothing you would feel uncomfortable telling me about." Don kept staring at her, and Belleza fought down the twitch building up under her eyebrow. "Tell me about your new captain."

A light clicked on in Don's eyes. "Ah." The old Valuan sailor said with sudden knowing. "You're a spymaster." Belleza blinked, and he smirked. "It's been many years, but I remember the look of your kind." Don leaned back slightly, affecting a casual slouch. "This is an interrogation."

"It does not have to be _unpleasant."_ Belleza pointed out crisply.

"Honey. Your troopers stormed onto our ship, roughed us up while a lot of us still were rubbing the sleep out of our eyes, and then threw the lot of us into the holds." Don reached up and twirled the end of his mustache. "Doesn't get more _unpleasant_ than that." She made to argue the point and he cut her off with a smirk. "I know what you're going to say, and you're wrong. Pain only makes a person say anything to make it stop. It doesn't always get you the truth."

"Don't you want to go home?" Belleza asked, putting threats aside for a different tack.

Don's smirk faded. "I am home."

"Not - I meant to Valua." Belleza pressed him, allowing a little of her exasperation to show. Don shook his head.

"My _home_ was the _Kingdom_ of Valua. Not this - this bloated _Empire_ that it has become after the death of my King. The King is dead and his son ran away from it because he could not stand to see everything his father loved and protected torn apart by _power-hungry vultures."_

The comment was rude and it was meant to be. Belleza stiffened up. "You say you care for Prince Enrique?"

"Yes." Don nodded once.

"Then you will be pained to hear that the Prince is gone. Gone with Vyse and his female companions." Belleza snapped at him.

"Then he is safe." Don smiled, relaxing. "For there is no one I trust more with his life than with my Captain."

"How can you say that?!" Belleza demanded. "If you were a true Valuan, you would -"

Don's clenched fist came down on the surface of the table, rattling the stained and finished wood and doing a fair job of silencing her out of shock.

"Do not talk to _me_ about being a _True Valuan."_ The aged sailor ground out, with enough heat that the soldiers behind him started forward. Belleza raised a hand to stop them, sensing that something had finally broken loose inside of the man. She didn't want to risk him bottling it all back up again. She needed answers, and if that required this old (Recovering alcoholic, if the slight tremor in his open hand meant what she thought it did) sailor got a little angry and fumed, she would put up with the vitriol to find the vital clues within.

Don breathed in and out twice, settling himself. "The Valua I served, the Valua I loved no longer _exists_ in the homeland. All that is left of it is aboard this ship and in the heart of a prince who chose exile over silence and tacit approval. You say that just because you and I call the same place home that I, and the rest of us should serve you and turn against the others on board this vessel. We remember the Valua we served with _pride_ and with _honor,_ but it died. It died, and we were abandoned. Where was Valua when the great expedition to penetrate the Dark Rift failed? Where was Valua when the last of our good ships were taken away, and the rest of us were given our discharge papers and forgotten? _Where was Valua_ these last 20 years when my countrymen, my fellow sailors broke apart for being discarded and began killing themselves rather than live with the disgrace?! Where in blazes was Valua when I was living in a bottle, drinking myself to death?!" He slammed the table again and snarled, spittle flying. _"NOWHERE!"_

Belleza didn't answer him, because how could she? She had just been a girl when that had happened, and the war had taken her father too. She just waited him out, because something told her that Don was the sort who insisted on filling the silence once he got going.

He did. "You know who didn't forget about us?" The Esperanzan asked her quietly. "Vyse and Enrique. You know who helped us? The Blue Rogues. They flew in one day, hellbent for leather and insistent that they were going to get through the Dark Rift. We all laughed at 'em, but they didn't let up. They didn't leave, either, even when your _Armada_ showed up. Instead, they stayed in town. Even set up a _medical clinic_ and started treating us at no cost. And Prince Enrique? He didn't _demand_ our loyalty or our service. He apologized for what had happened to us. Said that we deserved better." Don wiped at his eyes. "They saved my life, and they saved all our lives. They gave us a chance and they gave us back our hope and they never demanded anything. They offered us a place among them. They offered us the opportunity to finish what we had started."

Don's mouth finally quirked into a proper smile. "We sailed through that maelstrom. It took us a week but we did it, and while we were inside, we rescued my oldest friend who I thought lost to the Abyss. And when we came out on the other side, do you want to know the very first thing Vyse did?"

"Yes." Belleza said immediately. "Will you tell me?"

There was a flicker of hesitation in him, but he brushed it off and sallied forth.

"If you want to know what kind of man Vyse is, _Admiral,_ then set a course due south. Just past the Guardian Walls and the sky rift beyond them you'll find scattered islands in sight of the Dark Rift's exit. Look for a small island with no vegetation, just big enough to land a few skiffs on. On that island, you'll find a flag planted in the ground, the expedition flag taken from my old ship and left there in memorial for all the sailors who died trying to go beyond the edge of the world, and all those who withered to dust after, buried under broken promises and failed dreams." Don leaned forward. "Vyse put that flag there. He kept the promise that Valua failed to live up to. He's given us a new life and new purpose. The Prince, the next generation to rule stands at his side as a sworn brother in arms, and demands nothing from us save to live by the Code of the Blue Rogues. A Code none of us find fault with."

He paused, and Belleza realized she'd been holding her breath. She finally inhaled, and Don smirked at her. "He's better than _any_ of you, Captain Vyse is. We are loyal, Admiral Belleza. We are loyal to our prince and we are loyal to Vyse and we are _loyal_ to the Blue Rogues. Our friends. Our comrades. Our shipmates. We are True Valuans, and we have no loyalty to give to your Empire."

His point made, Don eased back in his chair. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to be taken back to the _prison hold_ where the rest of my crew is."

Belleza was stuck for a second or two, but finally nodded, and the man was taken away by the guards. On her notes, she carefully transcribed what she'd learned from the former Ensign Don Juan Artours.

_**Vyse draws in the dregs and the downtrodden and breathes purpose into them. **_

_** Very charismatic. Very dangerous. What's the Code of the Blue Rogues?**_

She needed more answers, more information. Thankfully, she was just getting started.

* * *

_Midday_

_The Royal Palace_

Belleza had been surprised to find that the Mid-Ocean trade tongue was known in Yafutoma, albeit not widely and not well. Scraps of it were taught, but nobody had made a true practice of it save for the missing Princess Moegi. It had only been Ramirez's primer that allowed for any communication at all, even limited as it was. Not that it was perfect by any means, and not for the first time in the past three days had Belleza wished that the coup's success had been total.

She would have loved to have Moegi, who had been _much_ more fluent in the Mid-Ocean standard, here serving as her translator. Not that Moegi would have elected to do so of her own volition.

So, with (former) Minister Kangan watching on, she stood in the center of the locked chambers which had been set aside for the deposed Emperor Mikado Tokugawa, and which served as an effective prison for the elderly monarch with a contingent of both Kangan's guards as well as a rotating pair of Valuan troopers standing outside the windowless room.

The man himself was still wearing the same garments that he had been when the coup had happened, even though other simpler clothes had been set out for him. He sat on the edge of his bed, not even looking at her as he spoke.

_"You...not win. Western Invader. The people - never - down to - war." _That was what she could make out, anyways. She glanced over to Kangan, wondering if the man might assist her, but the dark-haired and mustached fellow only looked back with a placid expression. There had only been one thing that Kangan had insisted on; No harm could come to the Emperor, or to Moegi. So the Emperor sat under house arrest, withering away, defeated and yet unbowed.

_"Forsooth, thou art certes. Thy people - kneel or be destroyed." _Belleza countered. _"Thou refused Valua. If thou wishes to save thine people? Thou bend the knee, and will the crown to Kangan in ceremony."_

The Emperor had long ago lost all smiles. He looked to Kangan, over Belleza's shoulder.

_"The wind howls. The mountain - not bow." _He countered. _"Divine wind - save us."_

Belleza looked back to Kangan again, and watched him scowl. "Is story. Lies." The Admiral found his explanation lacking in substance, but it was clear that the Emperor could not be budged to surrender his crown publicly, as Kangan was insisting on. Today, anyways.

_"You deliberate further. I return ere morrow. Naught but tea you receive."_ Belleza told the Emperor, then turned and walked away with Kangan leading her. Neither said another word until the doors were closed and they were out in the hallway, walking down the corridor.

Belleza huffed. "This would be a lot easier if you'd bloody just finish the old fool off." She muttered quietly.

_"Pardon?"_ Kangan quipped back. Belleza resisted rolling her eyes. She wondered just how unfamiliar with the language the Minister actually was, and how much he was playing up ignorance at. If the _Princess_ could speak it almost flawlessly, with an occasional missing conjunction or incorrect tense, then surely the former Chief Advisor must have had equal talent. For a land that seemed so clearly bent towards patriarchal structuring, how would a _girl_ have the necessary skill in translating that men in high positions lacked?

_"Why dost thou not extinguish his life?"_ Belleza asked in stilted, hackneyed (Outdated) Yafutoman. As always, there was a pinch in the man's eyes at her out of place dialect and her garbled sentencework. She was slowly picking up the added terms and replacement words of the modern Yafutoman tongue, but she diverted to what she had learned from Ramirez, and it wasn't enough on its own.

_"He is a symbol. The Mandate of Heaven is in him. Divinity in flesh. Killing him will cause endless revolt." _Kangan countered, and she picked out the important words enough to deduce the rest of the sentence's missing translation. Kangan raised an eyebrow. _"Do you want the people fighting you, or do you want them pacified?"_

Kangan _knew_ what Belleza wanted. What she needed from Yafutoma.

_"Force his hand."_ She pressed Kangan.

"How?" Kangan demanded, speaking in Mid-Ocean tradespeak for that one single word. _"For Moegi, he would. But she is missing. As are your pirates."_

He was putting the impetus on her to find them. It was cool and calculating and yet Kangan was managing the game very well.

"So is the Moon Crystal." She countered coldly. "I was told that Vyse gave it to the Emperor."

_"Pardon?"_ Kangan requested innocently.

The twitch was getting harder to suppress. _"The Moon Crystal. Vyse gave it to the Emperor. Yet - was not where thou said - would be."_

Kangan nodded. _"As I said. Either Vyse must have taken it, or Moegi did. If you want the Maga Sphere, then you must find the children. Only with Moegi's life at risk will Tokugawa allow the line of Kurowei to reign. Only then will my grip - __**our**__ grip on these lands be secured." _He nodded more to himself than for her benefit. _"The searches in the city are turning up nothing. They must have escaped the city."_

"How?!" Belleza snapped at him. _"Thy harbor was blockaded. No ships passed in or out. Thy men searched every vessel once we ceased the stop."_

"Tenkou. Maybe." Kangan conceded, and sensing her confusion, then added, _"Air pirates. Thorns in my side for too long."_

Belleza blinked at him. Air Pirates? Here? The thought rankled.

_"Thou shouldst have been forthcoming of this news."_ She told him.

Kangan gave her a confused look. _"Why? They are only pirates. Do you not have such in your lands?"_

She did, Belleza thought, and therein lay the problem. Kangan dismissed these Tenkou as a threat. Just like the Admiralty had dismissed the Blue Rogues as a faction full of bark and no real bite.

Until Vyse. Nothing for it now, of course; she'd have to get in touch with Vigoro and her Vice Admiral and start some proper searches. She let the matter slide and moved on to the next issue.

_"What is - Divine Wind?"_ She asked Kangan. _"Precisely."_

Kangan blinked. _"Old legends. Stories. They speak of how the Blue Moon sent a god to protect us, in the form of a Divine Wind that blows all to their doom. Of course, such things aren't real."_

Belleza held a different opinion, but then she had been witness to the resurrection of Recumen, and read the reports of Grendel's rampage that had sent De Loco's 5th Fleet fleeing for their lives. A deific spirit that conjured supernatural winds sounded very much like a Gigas to her mind.

_"Certes, they are not." _She lied smoothly. _"Continue thy searches. The sooner Moegi is found, the better off we shall be."_

Kangan effected a small, but courtly bow. "Agreed." He said smugly. Then he wandered off, leaving her alone in the corridor. Belleza watched him turn right at the next intersection, which would take him deeper into the palace and towards the chambers that were once the Emperor's.

Belleza marched ahead and turned left, making for the exit.

* * *

_Delphinus_

_Early Afternoon_

When Admiral Belleza had been given the crew manifest by the lieutenant that had led the advance teams in taking the ship, there were many names on it that she'd had no previous information on. There were names of crewmembers who served in vital posts that she wanted to meet with. Then there were crewmembers aboard who were already listed on Valua's bounty board and who merited summary execution. 'Loose Cannon' Lapen fit the last two categories, being a vital presence in the ship's engineering team as well as a wanted Black Pirate...although, news of him had gone dark, with the last sighting of him reported on Sailor's Island shortly before the _Delphinus_ docked there. At least she knew now where he'd disappeared to after.

Though tagged for execution regardless, she held back on issuing the order for a firing squad. There were _questions_ she wanted answered, after all.

Unlike Don, Lapen was brought into the dining hall in chains. Short ones at his ankles to hobble his speed and with his arms bound together and chained down low by his waist. He was still wearing purple, but much of the surly disposition her previous dossiers on the mechanically-minded madman spoke of was gone. There was a scowl there, but it was not the look of a man who wanted to see the whole world burn for some petty infraction. Given the way it deepened when he caught sight of her, there was only one part of the world he wanted to reduce to ashes.

It was Belleza's job to make sure that he, and _Vyse,_ never got the chance.

The troopers plopped him down into the seat, and unlike with Don and some of the other 'low risk' interviews she'd already done, they chained him to the table. Lapen rolled his eyes.

"Well. 'Loose Cannon' Lapen. I'd say this was a pleasure, but you know how Valua feels about pirates."

"Oh, my. You caught me." Lapen said drolly, still rolling his eyes. "Whatever will I do."

"You could help your case a little." Belleza said to him. "I have my best engineers going over the _Delphinus_ with a fine-toothed comb. For the lunaleagues that Vyse has put onto this ship, it's in remarkably impeccable condition."

"Why, thank you. We do try our best." Lapen snarked. Belleza tapped her quill down on her paper, waiting to see if he'd keep blathering on. Lapen seemed like a talker, that much sarcasm would drown most sensible people. He held his tongue, though.

"They were dismayed to find that this ship's primary weapons system was offline." Belleza went on. Lapen lolled his head up at the ceiling, not making an effort to focus in on the conversation. "Would you care to tell me how you sabotaged the Moonstone Cannon?"

Lapen laughed. "Really? You think that I had time to sabotage _anything_ when your people came storming in?"

"Mission reports placed you in the forward compartment by the Moonstone Cannon's primary systems at the time of your capture." Belleza pointed out grimly. "I don't think that anyone ever did themselves any favors by underestimating just what you're capable of when you're determined to be a right nuisance."

Lapen cracked a laugh at that, letting his head loll back down to stare her in the eyes. "Well, you'd be right about that, honeybear."

Pet names. He was goading her with affectations. Belleza had heard too many of them over the years to be too terribly incensed. Compared to _sugartits,_ honeybear was downright tame. Come to think of it, only one superior officer had never propositioned her or made a lewd remark. Another reason she pined after Galcian, she supposed.

Belleza tapped her page again. "I am willing to make certain considerations on your behalf if you were to render assistance to our engineering teams in reactivating the Moonstone Cannon."

"Such as?"

"A reduction of your sentence. Imprisonment instead of execution."

"Yeahhhh, no. No dice, sweetheart." Lapen muttered. "Besides, couldn't help you even if I wanted to. Yeah, I was pulling some wires when you came in, which your wrench turners have probably fixed by now, but it's still not working, is it?" Belleza stared at him, and Lapen smugged a little more. "Hate to say it, but Fina treats that big ol' gun as her personal property. She's tried explaining how it works to the rest of us, but hell if it doesn't just go flying over my head. I'm one hell of a mechanic. She told us she was taking it offline to make 'improvements', but what that consisted of? No idea. I'm a genius with a wrench, I built my own automated battletank out of pieces of one of your Valuan manned ones, but when she started explaining how that cannon works?" Lapen shrugged. "So, no. Couldn't help you even if I wanted to. Because I don't. So." He raised his hands up and flipped her a double bird. "If you've got any questions about routine engine maintenance, though…"

"I don't think so."

"Aw, come on." Lapen gave her a wildly facetious pout. "I bet I've forgotten more about skyship mechanics than you ever drooled over in those fancy academy classes."

"Get him out of here." Belleza growled to the guards, who got to work unchaining him from the table.

"What? Kicking me out already? But we were just starting to make a connection!" Lapen protested, still grinning like a madman. "Oh, wait, I get it. You think I'm going to give you bad advice. Absolutely not!"

"Goodbye, Lapen." Belleza glared death at him as he was carted off. It didn't stop him from looking back over his shoulder.

"You've got to remember to _grease the shaft_ before you work it!" He yelled back at her right before they hauled him out of the main entrance. His next shout penetrated through the closing doors. _**"I thought what we had was special!"**_

Belleza held in her scream and jotted down more notes on her paper.

_**Silvite Fina apparently possesses working knowledge of advanced weapons technology. Previous evidence gathered showed no aptitude for anything aside from minor spellcasting and lorekeeper's knowledge of the ancient civilizations. **_

_** What other skillsets does she possess that I'm unaware of?**_

* * *

_Evening_

There were others on board the _Delphinus_ listed as crewmembers who had no capacity in any sensitive role on the vessel. These were individuals like the ship's cook, Polly, and a fortuneteller named Kalifa, as well as the rubenesque merchant Osman and an Ixa'takan dancer named Merida. Most of the 'non-essential crew' insisted on staying with everyone else in the hold of the _Delphinus,_ but as nobody trusted the food that would have been provided by the cooks of the 4th Fleet, Polly ended up being pulled out of the hold. She insisted on her husband Robinson coming along with her, a rail-thin excuse of a sailor whose recently trimmed hair was shot through with gray and whose ill-fitted clothes hung off of him poorly. Polly proved to be adept in the galley, with Robinson assisting her and the fortuneteller called Kalifa shuttling food down to the holds. Escorted, of course.

Given that it kept order aboard the ship and kept the crew from getting any ideas, it was a small sacrifice that Belleza was willing to put up with. And Polly _was_ quite a good cook. A step above the staff on the _Lynx_ even, even if she didn't understand the meaning of a 'small' portion.

Belleza could pick Polly's brain for information about Vyse and his closest companions whenever she felt like it. The runner, Kalifa on the other hand…

Well. Belleza hadn't gotten to where she was by not listening to the winds of opportunity. And she _definitely_ had questions for the fortuneteller out of Maramba.

"Kalifa." Belleza stopped five paces short of the counter where the Maramban woman had been speaking with Polly and Robinson, inseparable as ever. Having pieced together the story of the husband and wife after her interview with Don, Belleza could understand why they were so loathe to be parted again. After 20 years of losing his mind inside the Dark Rift, it was a miracle he was still himself enough to function.

Kalifa spun around and looked back at Belleza through her thick glasses, tilting her head up so the reflection off of the room lights prevented the admiral from getting a good look at her eyes. "Yes? The Valuan admiral wishes something of Mistress Kalifa, Seer and chosen Oracle of the Moons?"

"Answers." Belleza nodded.

"Then I will require that my confiscated belongings be returned to me. Kalifa cannot unlock the secrets of fate and destiny without them." The Maramban said sternly.

Belleza couldn't help the smile that caused. "Let's talk first, and I'll see about giving you your things back. None of them qualified as weapons, after all, but I am under no obligation to be _helpful_ to you without a little reciprocity."

Kalifa turned back to Polly and Robinson. "Mistress Kalifa should not be long in this little distraction. Will the food be ready soon?"

"Aye, give us a little time, but it will be. No soup this time; learned our lesson." Polly grumbled, giving Belleza the stink eye before turning back to her stove. Robinson stared at her and kept staring with his dead eyes until Belleza shivered and turned away, and Kalifa sedately followed.

Kalifa sat down at the table that Belleza favored for her interviews, and tapped a finger on the wood until she sat down across from her.

"Strange you should pick this table over all others." Kalifa mused.

"How so?"

"This is the Captain's table." The fortuneteller explained. Belleza looked around the dining room and frowned.

"It doesn't look any different from the other tables."

"It is not. But this was where Vyse would sit. It _became_ his table."

"I see." Belleza considered that fact, then reached for her supply bag resting next to her. "If I might ask, who did he usually sit with?"

Kalifa smiled at that, a knowing smile that Belleza found unsettling. "Hm. Why? Such an unusual question. Why not ask what he would say to people? Why not ask about his routines aboard ship?"

Because Belleza was looking for weaknesses. Because Belleza didn't want to _empathize_ with the young Blue Rogue, she wanted to find him and crush him. It was what Valua required, his defeat and his death and the end of the nuisance of the Blue Rogues. She reminded herself of all of that forcefully, and pulled out what she'd been idly running a finger against inside of her bag, setting it down on the table between them.

Kalifa's smile dropped in an instant.

"That," The Maramban fortuneteller said coldly, "Was _not_ for your eyes."

"An interesting book." Belleza mused, letting go of it. Kalifa quickly grabbed at it and started thumbing through it, looking for edits or damage most likely. "Most would keep a journal or a log. But you, the would-be oracle, kept a _ledger_ for an ongoing betting pool. On _which girl_ Vyse is romantically involved with. And yet you have made no bet yourself." Belleza leaned forward a touch. Enough to be menacing. "That implies you know already."

"Or that I merely employ some professionalism in this little game." Kalifa countered, closing the ledger and glaring back at her. "It's improper for the house to make a wager; I already derive a cut of the final results. Why does it matter who Vyse invites to his bed?"

It really didn't, Belleza thought. Not to Valua. She just needed to know where his weakness was. Which one was more valuable to him, which made the better bait. And yet…

_'I won't choose. I won't hurt them, either of them, by choosing.' _That was what he had said one night as they journeyed to the Temple of Pyrynn when she was in disguise as the exotic dancer Bellena. A terrible disguise, haphazardly thrown together that would have fooled nobody with even a passing knowledge of her or her methods. It had fooled him, though. It had fooled Aika and Fina.

And for all of that, when she went to spring her honey trap, he refused.

_'I won't do that to them.'_

"Why did you join up?" Belleza asked the fortuneteller. "You were doing well for yourself in Maramba. You had a roof over your head, steady business, a good location next to the tavern…"

"You did your research. How many of your spies has Kalifa offered her predictions to over the years, _Admiral?"_ Kalifa asked coldly.

"A few." Belleza admitted. "Not that you would know them as such." Kalifa snorted, and Belleza pressed her. "If you want your belongings back, answer the question."

Kalifa drummed her knuckles on the surface of her ledger. "Do you believe that the Moons determine our fates?" Belleza quickly shook her head, and Kalifa smiled. "Neither does he. Many believe what I do to be harmless entertainment. Good for a lark, or helpful when one needs an excuse to make a decision in a different way to absolve themselves for the blame of it. But this is not so. When I looked at Vyse, I saw a man on the precipice of great potential, how the currents flowed in his wake to speed him along. The second time I saw him, he was in the midst of it. How often are we given a chance to see the world changing from the center of the storm? How could Mistress Kalifa claim to serve the will of the Moons if I did _not_ go with him?"

"Do you give him advice?"

"Rarely." Kalifa replied. "The good captain never looks to what others wish for in his actions. He lives by his Code and by his heart, and he _makes_ things change because of his presence."

Belleza shook her head. "No _pirate_ can effect such change on his own."

"He is not alone though, is he?" Kalifa pointed out. "You truly do not understand him, do you? That is why you fear him."

Belleza's eyes snapped up and she hissed. "You think I'm afraid of your precious _captain?_ He's nothing but a boy, a stripling whose luck has run out. He's abandoned you all to your fates to save his own skin!"

Kalifa laughed at that. "Truly? Well, then. Thank you for the advice. Now, if you would care to make good on your bargain, Admiral? Return my things. And I will even give you some free advice as well. In return for your own counsel."

Belleza ground her teeth together, but hoisted her bag up and started removing its contents, one piece at a time. The heavy coinpurse with the wagers. The Marambam woman's crystal octahedron. The odds and ends she'd had on her when she had been arrested.

Kalifa took them all without comment, then set her crystal down on its base and touched it with a finger, sending a low current of spiritual energy through the glass. It rose up, glowing dimly, and began to spin in the air.

"Neat trick." Belleza remarked. Kalifa ignored her, and the sheen in her thick glasses increased, masking her eyes as the glow from her scrying stone intensified. A feeling of thickness settled into the air, the glass spun faster between Kalifa's open hands, and then...The Seer spoke.

"You think yourself in control, daughter of the barren lands of the storm, but you are not. You think yourself loved, but you are not. You think yourself unbreakable, but you are _not."_

Belleza rolled her eyes. Charlatan's tricks at their best. But what the fortuneteller said after made her go still and tremble, with the air closing in around her.

_"You will die alone after everything you love has been blown apart. You will choke on the lies that you have lived by. It will end in Fire, and in Shadow."_

The glass stopped spinning and Kalifa jerked her hands back. The heaviness in the air vanished, and the Maramban gasped when her scrying stone fell to its base with a dull thud.

Belleza said nothing after, and Kalifa packed up her things, looking pale and peaked.

"There is always a cost to Knowing." Kalifa said grimly. She stood up and went over to where her spot in the dining hall had been when the Valuan guards had arrested her, and set her crystal octahedron and its base in their proper place.

"One last piece of free advice, Admiral?" Kalifa said as she walked back to the galley and serving counter to retrieve the meals for the other prisoners. "If you want to know Vyse, then study his Code. Because you haven't won yet. He hasn't given up. Blue Rogues never do."

* * *

_The Delphinus, Medical Bay_

_189 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Mid-Morning_

The Code. It always came back to _The Code._ As if that were supposed to mean something to Belleza. She knew that Dyne had always been a particular sort after he and what would become the core of the Blue Rogues movement had mutinied. They would attack Valuan military ships, including military transports, but there were no reports ever given of ships with Blue Rogue flags going after civilian merchant shipping. Not like other Air Pirates, who typically flew the black flag, did. Kalifa had mentioned tenacity as being a part of it, at least indirectly. Something about _not giving up._ And at his execution which Vyse had interrupted, Dyne's last words prior to that event had been to scream into the stadium that _Blue Rogues Fly Free._

Knowing that understanding the Code of the Blue Rogues was a solid step in the process of unraveling the mystery of Vyse, son of Dyne, Belleza had sent for another name on the crew manifest that was of interest to her. This one was bound to be a touch more skittish than the others, so she changed her pattern up and went to their territory before sending the guards to escort them up.

Doctor Ilchymis du Argas was wearing white physician's work robes and was every bit the nobleman's son that accounts had described him as. His presence on board the _Delphinus_ had been a total surprise, given how the man had been able to skillfully evade detection by Valuan pickets and scouts. His face had careworn lines in them, smile lines for the most part, but there was no evidence of such a smile now. Like all the others who had been arrested and put under guard in the _Delphinus's_ hold, the man hadn't had the chance to wash up since then.

"Lord Argas." Belleza greeted him, the due owed to a member of the nobility.

"I prefer the honorific of _Doctor,_ if you wouldn't mind." The silver-haired man replied. "You've been interviewing many people. I am afraid that, unless you require a physical, I would be of little use to you from an intelligence gathering standpoint. I was not involved with the operations aboard this ship."

Belleza smiled. "Naturally. Your pacifism and refusal to wield arms is well known, Doctor Argas. As is your rather storied disappearing act to avoid conscription into the Armada's medical corps. Yet for a man who wanted no part in warfare, here you stand as the bona fide ship's physician aboard a stolen Valuan vessel, in the company of known and charged air pirates."

"Blue Rogues." Ilchymis countered, his own answering smile much thinner, like a scalpel pointed at her. "There is a difference."

Belleza gestured to a pair of beds. "I am curious to know what that difference is. Doctor, can we be civil enough to sit down and talk properly?"

Ilchymis glanced to the thin and narrow mattresses set up for the treatment and observation of recovering patients, lifting an eyebrow over the rim of his glasses.

"Please." Belleza said, trying not to wince as the soreness in her neck she'd woken up with led into the beginnings of a proper headache. Ilchymis considered it for another two seconds before nodding and sitting down. Gratefully, Belleza sat down across from him. Unlike Ilchymis who sat stiffly on the side of it, she sank down onto the stiff white sheets and sighed as she leaned her head back against the lone pillow.

"Aren't you concerned that I might try to hurt you? Or escape?"

"You would not get very far if you tried to run, doctor. Nor do I think you are the kind of man who inflicts pain and suffering on others lightly, even for your own benefit." Belleza said. Vyse, she was still struggling to understand, but her dossier on Ilchymis was much more thorough.

He breathed hard for a couple seconds before speaking. "No. I am not." He admitted.

"I have heard from some of the other crewmembers I have spoken with that Blue Rogues live by a Code." She began.

"Um. Yes. They do."

"You do not follow it yourself?"

"I am not a Blue Rogue." Ilchymis said. "Not as the others are. I am a doctor. I heal the injured, treat the sick. I do not fight as they do."

"Could you tell me what the Code is?"

"Why?" Ilchymis set his hands on his knees, and Belleza turned her head from where she'd been staring at the ceiling to glance at him. He was frowning. "Why do you wish to know?"

"Vyse and Aika and Fina are on the loose. If I am to find them and end their little rebellion, I must understand them."

Ilchymis laughed at that. "I see. Very well. I will tell you the Code, but it will not help you capture them."

She waited as he drew himself up, bringing forth weight into his words. _"Blue Rogues Leave Nobody Behind. Blue Rogues never back down from a Greater Danger. Blue Rogues always help out those in need. Blue Rogues Never Give Up. And Blue Rogues Fly Free."_

To hear it all laid out so precisely made her shiver for a reason she couldn't fathom. "That is...quite something." He hummed in reply, and she whispered the words to herself, committing them to memory. She would put them to paper later, the mysterious Code of the Blue Rogues that had heretofore been part of the mystery and allure about the air pirates who quarrelled only against Valua and the Black Pirates. In those five simple phrases, she could see the elements that drove Vyse. A commitment to help the weak. A persistence in his purpose, the endless resolve that kept them coming no matter how dark things got or how outnumbered they were. A loyalty to their comrades that -

She blinked. "They're coming back for you." Belleza said, her teeth clicking as she snapped her jaw shut. Ilchymis smiled benignly. She scowled and looked back up at the ceiling. "Why, Ilchymis? What did they say to you to make you join up with them? Why are you here, on this ship, when by all logic you should still be hiding somewhere in the wilderness north of Valua where our scouts could never seem to find you?"

"Why indeed." Ilchymis stood up. "Those are all very good questions. I notice you seem to be in a bit of minor pain, dear Admiral. I could not well hold to my own physician's oath and not see to your care."

"You? Would _treat_ me?" Belleza scoffed.

Ilchymis rolled his eyes. "Was that not the intention of the Armada when they attempted to forcibly conscript me?" It had been, she knew. A letter delivered to his home, telling him to report to the Grand Fortress via train the following morning. How he had not reported in, and when they went to find him, they found his family's estate dark, his room a mess with hastily packed clothes and belongings and the rest strewn about.

They never had found him, but the reports of a strange silver-haired physician and surgeon working his way through Mid-Ocean had kept the scouts busy. Always too late to capture him, though.

He didn't wait for an answer, he merely approached her bedside. "Headache, I imagine. Given how you're squinting and minimizing the movements of your neck and eyes." He reached a hand towards her, and on instinct, Belleza pulled back and drew out a dagger. He stilled. "I am _not_ trying to injure you further, Admiral. My oaths prevent it. _First, do no harm."_

She felt ashamed. He could have fought his way out, in some of the close calls. He never had. He'd only ever run. She stowed her dagger and closed her eyes. "Do as you will." she conceded.

He rubbed his hands together, warming them, then had her sit up and turn so her back was to him. When his hands came to rest on her shoulders, she felt the prickle of magic on his fingertips. It wasn't the soft and suffusing glow of green magic, there were enough spellmages in the corps that she knew the taste and feel of that. This was something crisper, more clinical. More absolute.

"What…?" She whispered, shivering and starting to turn her head. She didn't get far before his words, and what she could make out from the corner of her eye stilled her.

"Please don't move, I'm still analyzing." He muttered quietly, while his hands glowed silver. A Curia spell. But not. She knew Curia magic, it was the most basic silver magic there was, albeit difficult to learn. All the spellmages who were able to cast it preferred to imbue the essence of the spell into empty spell crystals for instant use, it was not an easy spell and it took too long to cast in a combat scenario where time was of the essence. But when she'd witnessed them casting it, or seen a Curia Crystal being used, the glow around it had always been pale white, like the halo around a lightbulb.

His hands were shimmering pure metallic _silver._

"Moons." Belleza whispered, finding her mouth dry. She didn't resist when he lifted a hand up and took her by the chin, turning her head to face forward again. Then the prickling intensified as he pushed his magic under her skin.

"Ah, there we are. Tightness of the upper trapezius and the scalenes. Tension built up with too much stress over time. Resultant stress headache. I would recommend a light oral analgesic no more than twice a day with food. For now, though…"

And the slight stinging of his magic went _warm_ and flowed into her neck and her shoulders, rising up along the back of her head and coming up over to the front of her scalp.

It couldn't have taken more than half a minute or so, and the warmth and his hands both receded and pulled away. She was left blinking, feeling refreshed and hale and _the headache was gone._

She whirled on him, knowing that the shock of it was showing on her face and not caring about it. "You can cast _Silver Magic?_ That perfectly?!"

He shrugged, a twinge of shame in his eyes. "A work in progress." He admitted. "I am nowhere near as skilled at it as my nie...as the Lady Fina is." He hastily corrected himself, but too late to prevent Belleza from sounding the rest out. _Niece._ Which meant...

"You're a _Silvite."_

"By adoption." Ilchymis admitted with a sigh, outed. "I don't know where Miss Fina's people live, or how they stayed hidden for so long. But I know I trust her completely, and that I know better to argue than her claiming me as a distant uncle. I have no living relatives left. You keep looking at Vyse as the cause for how everyone on this ship came to be here, and that is a reflection of your own bias. He asked me to join him, and I refused. I didn't stay for him. I stayed for her. For what she showed me."

Belleza's heart stuttered. Silver Magic. The great and unknowable secret, the art of restoring and reanimating the recently departed, of bringing true death. Of healing any malady. Silver Magic, the Great Panacea. "How powerful is she?"

Ilchymis shrugged. "More than she knows. More than she _wants_ to know, I suspect. That power could tear down civilizations if misused. In her, that strength is tempered by kindness and compassion. She is teaching me, and I still have a long ways to go." He narrowed his eyes. "If I might ask, Admiral...have you perused my medical files?"

Belleza had. "No." She lied. Of course she had, but only the files on Vyse and Fina and Aika and Enrique. Vyse and Enrique were the models of perfect health. His notes on Aika and Fina seemed more concerned with their reproductive health than anything else, and he kept making notations about improvements to the 'oral contraceptives' that he made for them.

Ilchymis kept staring at her, and Belleza stared right back. She was the spymaster of the Valuan Empire. She knew better than anyone how to fit on a mask, to play a role. To lie boldly and baldly, even to the Empress if it was required. She'd even been stared down by Galcian, who she lusted for, admired, and somehow masked her open desire and the pain of being denied the simplest phrase a man said to a woman after their coupling. An _'I love you'_ that had never been uttered by him. Even when she lay sweaty and disheveled and undone beneath the firm weight of him.

Ilchymis kept staring at her, full of disappointment and nonaggressive sadness. Something about that look stung at her, reminding her of her father's warm presence combined with her long-dead mother's barely remembered smile and adoring eyes. It was a look without any rage or anger or bitterness in it at all. Just a look that said without any words that _You are better than this._

Belleza closed her eyes and crumbled. "Not all of them." She admitted, and Ilchymis hummed at that.

"Was it worth it? Did you find anything in my treatment notes that spoke to their character, or how Vyse would act?"

She hadn't. If she had, it would have given her a justification for it. A post-eventum justification, but there hadn't been. She mutely shook her head.

"I would see my files returned to their proper place and locked up again." He said, the heat returning to his voice.

"It will be done." She promised him.

"Good." Ilchymis hummed, having nothing further on the subject to discuss.

Her mind spun on through the shame of being found out, and she began to piece it together. Innocuous details, linked to other salacious ones. Linked to a possibility.

"You know, I spoke with Mistress Kalifa. It is my understanding that there is a 'betting pool' here on the ship for which of Vyse's two female companions are being Courted by him." She opened her eyes, reading his face. "I don't suppose you know which one of them he takes to his bed at night? Given that they're both on the same birth control?"

"You know? I couldn't say." The physician hummed, stepping back away from her with that placid smile back on his face again. It felt more impish this time.

"Couldn't because you don't know, or because you _won't?"_ She pressed him. Ilchymis just laughed. A dead end unless she wanted to press the point. She found she didn't want to.

"Thank you. For the treatment. And for the information." Belleza said to him.

"Might I ask for a favor in return?" He requested. At her nod, he explained, "I should like to take a few things belowdecks. Some additional blankets, some basic remedies. Things I can use to tend to the wounds of the crew, being as your men weren't exactly that _gentle_ when they stormed the ship."

"I can -" She said, and was cut off when the hatch to the physician's space of healing was swung open, a harried looking Valuan soldier without his helmet stepping inside and snapping to attention.

"Admiral Belleza. You're needed in Yafutoma City. There's been an incident, and Admiral Vigoro is requesting reinforcements."

She refrained from groaning. "Of course." She gestured to Ilchymis. "Give the doctor whatever medical supplies and sundries he requires for the care of the other prisoners. Doctor, we'll have to cut our talk short."

"Yes. Shame, that." Ilchymis hummed, folding his arms together. "You have a new annexation to the Valuan Empire to tend to. If you can keep it."

Something in those words felt like prophecy. Belleza held off her shiver until she was running through the corridor alone.

* * *

_Yafutoma City_

Belleza had thought the Yafutoman people easily cowed and servile, due to how they'd acted during the invasion and the coup. As she flew in on a skiff, escorted by a dozen other skiffs full of armed Valuan soldiers and saw a sea of the Yafutoman citizenry moving towards the scuffle, and heard the roar of them as they approached a quarter of the city full of teahouses and entertainments, she found herself re-evaluating that assessment.

They just hadn't found the time to get angry enough before. They were now.

"Do not open fire on the crowds!" Belleza yelled over the noise, and her small ship's communications officer went for the flags, running up the combination to make sure the other ships did as she'd commanded. A signal flag from a building rooftop nearby caught her eye as they got nearer to the site of the disturbance. It was a Valuan command post, set up expressly to ferry messages between the Armada parked outside the city's walls and its forces within. Given the arrangement of the flags, this had been the station to raise the alarm as well. "Take us down there, soldier!" She barked to the pilot, who complied quickly with the order. The two troopers on station quickly saluted when her vessel pulled up alongside.

"Status report." Belleza barked at them, hoping that they wouldn't waste her time by blathering on. Some troopers did that on occasion in their reports, not realizing there was a difference between _useful_ and _useless_ information.

"Admiral." The first said, lifting the mask of his helmet up enough to make his words lose the muffling quality it usually bestowed. "A patrol decided to visit the teahouse quarter. There was apparently a - a misunderstanding between the natives and them, and a scuffle broke out. The men took offense at being led on, and more of the locals got involved. They arrested their attackers and…"

"And the city exploded." Belleza concluded, staring to the Valuan garrison headquarters three blocks over. Or what qualified as blocks, the Yafutomans built their streets at odd angles and lengths, working with the terrain, as opposed to the much more orderly grid system employed by Valuan city planners and architects. "Very well. I'll see to it from here." She waved down another ship to their position. "I'm going to go resolve this. If, _and only if the garrison is overrun,_ you are to fly back to the Armada and get in touch with my Vice Admiral on the _Lynx_ to inform them of the situation. If you go flying off and we are not being slaughtered you are going to _wish_ that you only got demoted. Am I clear, soldiers?"

"Perfectly clear, admiral!" The second squawked out, losing control of his pitch by how nervous he was. She nodded and gestured to her pilot, and they moved in.

The crowd's volume dimmed slightly and changed in pitch as Belleza and her small flotilla of ships full of soldiers came bearing down on them. The anger was there, but there was fear as well, which seemed perfectly reasonable given how many of the smaller swivel guns were pointed down at them. Belleza reached for her speaking tube and brought it up to her lips.

_"Cease this!" _She yelled down at them, the cone making her voice double in volume and allowing it to cut through the chatter. _"No attack us. They fire if you attack."_

_ "You - invaders think -won't stand for - brutality!" _A man from the crowd shouted back, wielding a ditch digger's shovel up at her threateningly.

Belleza held her hand out. This could go wrong so quickly, so easily. _"Please, cease!" _She begged them. _"I - find out what happened. Time, give me! Enough violence today. Enough blood. No more. Please!"_

She was desperately calling on every scrap of applicable language she could remember in the middle of the crisis. Somehow, it felt as though she was speaking in even more garbled phrases than usual. Between her entreating and all of the guns pointed at them, the Yafutomans calmed down. Or perhaps it was because this had, by the report given to her, started because of violence directed at a woman by Valuan soldiers. Maybe they had figured that a woman officer among the invaders might be more reasonable to their side of it.

Taking the chance, she directed her pilot to set down in front of the garrison's doors. To her relief, the crowd backed away and gave them a spot to land, and left room enough for her to get out. The men in the crowd were still glaring, but didn't reach for her or charge forward again. A young woman reached out and touched her arm, and Belleza went still, hearing the guards on the skiff beginning to ready their weapons. She held up her hand. "Weapons down." She ordered them calmly, more calmly than she felt. She turned to the woman, seeing dried tears that had streaked through her white makeup, ruining it, and garments more ornate and elaborate than the other Yafutomans were wearing.

_"Please. Sanada not - she just want them - stop. We - teahouse girls, not - pleasure women." _Her face hardened at the end and she spat the words out.

Pleasure women. _Prostitutes._

Oh, _damn_ them. Belleza kept her face a mask and nodded. _"Thou will have justice. This, I vow. As a woman."_

The young teahouse girl nodded and let go of her. Belleza swept her gaze over the crowd one last time, reading their faces and breathing a little easier as the harder faces who had been close enough to overhear her conversation had softened up, exchanging outright hatred for more wary, but watchful scowls.

Belleza gave them all another nod and then turned for the doors, trying to open it first and then pounding and ordering the barred doors opened when they didn't give way. Panicked voices inside answered her, and she slipped inside.

There, an entire squad of heavily armed and armored Valuan soldiers were holding position behind hastily erected barricades, relaxing when she came into view. And leading them was -

"Belleza!" Vigoro greeted her. True to his name, he did so vigorously. He swept over the barricades, grinning widely. "I hear that it's calmed down out there. How did you talk sense into these barbarians? A little more gunboat diplomacy? You haven't fired any shots yet, which is a pity. I would have sent them running."

"Unfortunately, you were too busy cowering in here." She set a hand at her waist. "Care to tell me what's happened? And show me to the prisoners."

"What's to tell? Me and the men were visiting a local teahouse, and the women there were flirting with us. Out in the streets you had painted up hussies propositioning us everywhere, and so when we're inside, we figure hey, they're game for it." Vigoro scowled. "No sooner does one of my boys start groping her up than she's screeching her head off and throwing teapots at us! Full ones! With hot tea!"

"I see." Belleza felt the pit in her stomach get deeper. Moons, she wanted to _strangle_ the man. "Vigoro. On the off chance that she _had_ accepted the advances of you and your men, what exactly were you going to do with her?"

"I have hands, don't I? And a mouth?" Vigoro mused. He smirked a little, but with more cruelty than she'd ever seen from him before. "I'd make her feel _good_ before we ruined her."

"Like you tried to make Vyse's subordinate Aika feel good?" Belleza countered, the nausea from dealing with the bastard rising quickly.

His face warped into a bitter scowl, and he clenched his hands into fists. "That red-headed _bitch._ If I ever get my hands on her, I'll show her what happens to women who cross Vigoro."

_Thank the Moons she got away from you. _"Where was this bravado when you screamed like a little girl and hid behind me because she conjured up a little fire in her hands?" The look of rage on his face worsened. "Get yourself under control, Admiral." She warned him. "We set the example of proper behavior for our men. Now. You, stay here. I have witnesses to interview."

She swept out of the building's foyer and marched to the back, where guards were posted in a hallway. They came to attention and saluted as she neared.

"Which room is the Yafutoman girl being kept in?"

"Here, ma'am." The first guard gestured.

"And the rest of the party who was with Admiral Vigoro?" Belleza prodded.

"Um. They're with the medic, getting patched up. Apparently they got some bruises out of the scuffles." Belleza nodded and opened the door to where the teahouse girl, Sanada, was being kept.

Belleza froze in the doorframe, looking to a young girl of perhaps Aika and Fina's age huddled on a mattress, her arms curled around her midsection. There were a couple other Yafutoman men in the room as well, leaning up on the wall and looking banged up as most men would after a barroom brawl. Belleza only had eyes for the girl though. There was dried blood mixed in with her facepaint on her cheek, and a deadly serious bruise that had puffed up painfully around an eye that looked to be closing up. The position of her arms seemed to be covering bruised and hurting skin beneath. Which meant they hadn't just struck her face, they'd _punched her in the gut._

_"You are hurt." _Belleza said, and the girl sat up and looked at her. _"Has a physick treated you yet?"_

_"No. No doctor." _The girl whispered faintly. _"Just guards."_

Belleza saw red after that. In a whirlwind of motion, she helped the girl up and escorted her and the Yafutoman men to the garrison medics, lashing the healers in a loud voice until they stepped away from the soldiers with their minimal bruising and put their talents to work on her and the men who had been arrested trying to defend her. A Sacri crystal and some wipes and bandages later, Sanada had lost her facepaint and looked remarkably better, with the swelling around her eye much reduced. She was fearful of all the Valuans and stayed close to Belleza, gripping her arm with a shaky hand.

Sanada didn't trust the men. Belleza found it hard to disagree.

"Tell me, soldiers." Belleza thundered. "Did any of you think to look up the policy on fraternization between troopers of the Valuan Armada and civilians, or were you too busy trying to get your rocks off?" Without their helmets, their sheepishness was immediately apparent. "Did any of you forget about a little thing called _Consent?_ Or did you just think that the Valuan Code of Military Justice didn't apply to people who didn't speak your language? Because I can guarantee that it does." Some of the guards that she had brought with her had filtered in, and she gestured to the troopers that Vigoro had gone slumming with. "Pursuant to Article 24, Section 17 of the VCMJ, you are all hereby under arrest pursuant to an investigation regarding your conduct during this occupation."

"Now wait just a minute!" Vigoro snapped, barreling in as her personal guard started slapping manacles on the wrists of his troopers. "You can't just go around arresting my troopers willy-nilly and letting these aggressors and this little _slut_ off the hook!"

Belleza pulled her hand back, wound up, and then _slapped him_ with everything she had. It was enough, off-guard as he was, to send him stumbling back with his head and torso twisted.

"I am the head of this expedition. Until this investigation is concluded, Admiral Vigoro, I am hereby reassigning you to the Armada. Minister of State Kurowei has spoken of some persistent air pirates roaming these skies. I advise you to turn your attention to tracking them down. And don't you _ever_ go using that language in my presence again, you sick, crippled bastard. Galcian can overlook much, but only when it doesn't affect the mission." Vigoro was steaming, but held himself in check as Belleza looked up at him and somehow still stared him down. "Should I include how your own carnal appetites and poisonous attitudes almost turned the entire city against us?" He held his silence, and Belleza pointed for the door. "Get back to the _Draco._ Have your Vice Admiral report to me. I'm assigning him oversight of our occupation forces henceforth."

Vigoro stormed out, and Belleza gave herself a minute to recover and reassure the young Sanada before leading her and her defenders out.

The sight of Sanada and the men freed and looking better as well as the Valuans who had assaulted her being marched onto her transport in chains brightened up the crowd's disposition. The men passed by her, some staring in cautious disbelief and two of them even nodding respectfully as they shifted out into the crowd. Belleza took Sanada's hand before letting the girl go back to her friend in the dissipating mob.

_"There shall be trial. If you speak, t'will make the burden of proof easier." _She told the girl. _"Sanada, will you stand witness to their crime?"_

_ "Yes." _She nodded once, offering a small, uneasy smile. Her friend took Sanada, bowing to Belleza.

_"You - keep promise. Thank you."_

_"I promised justice."_ Belleza told her.

_"You still invader, though."_ An older woman nearby remarked, and Belleza's casual attitude snapped shut. _"Divine Wind punish you all. But maybe - spare you, red-haired one. Hope - spare you."_

The crowd dispersed, and Belleza climbed aboard the small transport vessel, exhausted and worn out.

"We're done here. Get us back to the fleet." She ordered the pilot wearily.

* * *

_The Delphinus_

_Prince Enrique's Cabin_

_Early Evening_

Her Vice Admiral, Rawlins, had insisted on Belleza taking a few hours for herself after cleaning up the debacle in Yafutoma City, and though she'd found herself unable to get any proper rest, the break had given her time to put her thoughts together, compile a little more of her profile on Vyse, and to get some food and some tea in her. By the time Lieutenant Alvarez came into get her up for her meeting with Vigoro's Vice Admiral, Belleza was feeling much more like herself.

She found herself returning to the _Delphinus_ shortly after, and sent word for her next interviewee to be brought up to her while she let herself into the cabin that had belonged to Prince Enrique. She'd been stunned to find that the enormous stateroom meant for the Prince had instead been given to Vyse by the crew reports. Why would Enrique allow himself to be deposed from the more expansive quarters? Was his respect for Vyse that great or had the Blue Rogue taken it as his due, forcing Enrique to the more spartan environment?

The Prince had little in the way of personal belongings. Had it not been for the careworn sword-cleaning kit that bore a personal message from Gregorio engraved into the underside of the lid of the wooden box, she would have so easily dismissed it as just another officer's cabin. It was along the same corridor of staterooms that also included the captain's cabin, as well as two which she had earmarked as belonging to Aika and Fina, per ship's records. Aika's had odds and ends of blueprints, half-repaired bits of machinery, and a whetstone meant for sharpening knives. Fina's had even less in the way of personal belongings than Enrique's room did, and seemed sparingly used. Or it had been cleaned on a fairly regular basis, it didn't exactly look lived in.

Enrique's room was _definitely_ lived in, although the man clearly spent most of his time when he was in his cabin sleeping. She re-read the inscription from Admiral Gregorio again and smiled to herself, tracing it with her fingertips.

_To my Prince- May your father's courage and compassion be yours, always._

'_Uncle' Gregorio_

A knock at the door brought her back to her senses, and she closed the lid. "It's open." She said, and the hatch opened to reveal a soldier and a squirming child on the other side. The child was a squirming _brat_ of a boy with rumpled and greasy clothes, spiky red hair, and a frayed green scarf wrapped around his neck. He glared daggers at Belleza. Belleza found herself smiling back at him.

"Oh, you _have_ to be little Marco." She chuckled when he puffed up, looking insulted. "Thank you, soldier. I think I can manage him from here. Close the door after you leave, please." The fellow saluted and shut the hatch, leaving the freckled boy Marco fuming and standing in place with his arms folded defiantly over his chest. Daring the world, daring her, to make him do anything he didn't feel like doing.

"I didn't think that the Blue Rogues recruited children."

"Valua figured I was old enough to die." Marco countered. "Captain Vyse showed me how to live."

Belleza blinked at the fire there, but latched on to something else. "Your accent. You're Valuan. Lower City, if I'm right."

Marco kept on scowling. "So what?"

Belleza blinked again, then took a seat at the desk by Enrique's cleaning kit. "Why don't you sit down?"

"S'not my room."

"True. It's Enrique's." Belleza nodded. "Do you know why I wanted to talk to you?"

"You're talkin' to everyone." The boy grumbled, though he did move over to the bed and flump onto it. He actually _flumped._ And sighed, relaxing into the mattress. Apparently, the prisoner accommodations in the hold were lacking. Nothing for it, really.

"What's a boy out of the Lower City doing on a ship like this?"

"What's a cake eater like you doing invading other countries? Oh, wait. You're _Armada._ Stupid question." He snarked back at her.

"Young man, I'm doing my best to make this pleasant for you."

_"This_ is pleasant? Getting shoved into the hold of our ship? Being told that we're gonna be executed at the end of it?"

"You don't have to be." Belleza told him, trying to sound consoling. "You're Valuan. We can take you back. Get you a post as a cabin boy. You can work your way up. Some day, you could even become an officer."

"What's the catch, sister?" The boy snuffled, pulling his head up from the bed.

"Tell me what you know about Vyse."

"Why?"

"I'm searching for him."

"Because you wanna kill him."

"In a perfect world, he would stand trial for his crimes first. But pirates don't often give us that chance, they prefer not to be taken alive."

"Blue Rogue." Marco snuffled again. "He's a Blue Rogue."

"He's also not coming back." Belleza told the boy. "Unless we find him, and then he's coming back in chains. He's abandoned you."

"He did not." Marco snapped at her, pushing himself up off of the bed. "Vyse isn't like that. He's brave, and he's strong, and he's not afraid of you! Just you wait, he's gonna come back and pull something _awesome,_ and then you're all gonna be begging for mercy!"

"Why do you hate Valua so much, boy?" Belleza asked him, exasperated. "It's your home." Marco stared at her, an odd look on his face. Then he started laughing. Hard. Belleza waited him out. It took a while before he finally settled again.

"Stop pretending you care about me." Marco finally said, his voice harder than Belleza would ever expect a twelve year old boy's voice to be. "Nobody in Valua _cared_ about me when I grew up thievin' and eating scraps out of the garbage. Nobody in Valua _cared_ about me when I was so cold and hungry that I couldn't even sleep. Nobody _cared_ about me until Vyse came along and gave me a reason to keep living. He told me about a whole world outside of Valua, a world where people cared for each other." There were tears in his eyes as he glared at Belleza, harder and worn, but ever defiant. "You know what Big Sis Aika said to me? Home is _people._ Home's not a place, it's a feeling. Valua's a shithole, and it never did anything for me. You want me to sell out Vyse? Or Aika and Fina? Or Enrique? Fat chance. They're my _home._ This ship is my home. The people on it are my home. So you can just go _get bent."_

"Listen to the mouth on you." Belleza muttered darkly. "You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

Marco wiped at his nose again. "My mama's dead. She and my dad got killed by Valua. By soldiers like _you."_ He jumped off the bed, sniffling and crying and angry. Belleza walked by him and pounded on the door, and it was opened up by a pair of Valuan guards.

"Get him out of here." Belleza said woodenly. The lead guard paused for a bit, then held out a hand to the boy instead of grabbing for his arm. Marco slipped his hand into the guard's and let the man lead him back away for the hold. The cold feeling in Belleza's heart stayed after he was gone, and she didn't even care that the other guard lingered.

"Tell me something, soldier." Belleza said to the remaining Valuan trooper. "Why did you join up?"

"I figured it was better than being conscripted. Ma'am. How about you?"

"Because I wanted to bring peace to the world by helping to stop the fighting. But there are days I forget that."

"Ma'am?" The guard asked nervously.

Belleza waved off his anxiety. "Nothing. Just talking to myself, I suppose. What do you think about that boy?"

"I - I don't think I signed up to make children cry. Ma'am." The guard sighed.

Belleza stroked the side of her arm slowly. "Neither did I."

* * *

_Captain's Cabin_

_Delphinus_

_Evening_

She could have, and probably should have returned to the _Lynx_ after her meeting with Marco. She'd run flat out of steam to conduct any more interviews, after all. Belleza found herself walking instead in the direction of the captain's cabin, _Vyse's cabin,_ and there she stayed. Her Vice Admiral finally sought her out with dinner in hand and found her buried in her notes.

"This isn't healthy, ma'am." The ever reliable Vice Admiral Rawlins told her, sitting with her at the desk after setting all of her papers into a pile on top of the enormous bed. "For yourself or for the combined Fleet. Please, eat something and then return to the _Lynx._ Surely you have learned all you can about Captain Vyse and the companions he escaped with by now."

"You would think so." Belleza murmured. "But his crew is remarkably tight-knit. All I've been given are glimpses, just tiny _glimpses_ into what motivates him. I know the Code of the Blue Rogues now, at least. But I'm missing something. Something big."

"Right." The brown-haired officer sighed and leaned his chin on his fist, staring at her. "Please. Eat something, would you Nadia?"

"Stop mothering me, Daniel." She grumbled, sulking back at him.

His flinty blue-gray eyes softened. "Stop making me have to." She sighed and reached for her knife and fork, carving into the roasted chicken breast that he'd brought with him. "I asked Miss Polly to cook that."

"And it's not poisoned?" She asked incredulously. He chuckled a bit and shook his head right before she popped it into her mouth. It was delicious. She dug into the rest of her dinner with far more gusto after that, and Dan Rawlins smiled and relaxed as she did, tucking into his own. A victory on two fronts, her now happy stomach reported.

A few minutes later, she pushed her empty plate away and he collected it. "Are you coming back home tonight?" The way he phrased it made her laugh sharply and sadly. "Uh, Admiral? Did I say something funny?"

"No, it's just - Well. There's a boy on Vyse's crew. 12 years old, full of fire. You hear about the ones who fall through the cracks back in Valua."

"Aye." Rawlins said understandingly. "More these days than before, sadly. I take it this Marco was one of them?"

"He was. Until Vyse saved him." Belleza shook her head. "I think we've been wrong this entire time, Dan. About the Blue Rogues. About their motivations. The people on his crew, the ones aboard this ship? They are loyal to him. Loyal in a way that no Valuan commander ever inspired loyalty. They all believe, I am _certain_ of it, that Vyse will come back for them."

"That's a good thing." Rawlins said, stacking the plates and dirty silverware and glasses back on the serving tray to be carted off. "He still has the Moon Crystals, after all."

"Including the Blue Moon Crystal." Belleza murmured. Rawlins narrowed his eyes.

"That's confirmed?"

"It's the most likely scenario." Belleza clarified. "Vyse doesn't strike me as the sort to make the same mistake more than once. He lost the Red Moon Crystal to me before reclaiming it. The Green Moon Crystal was apparently kept by the Ixa'takans and used to summon Grendel, but they had it with them when Ramirez captured them at the sacking of Nasrad. If he had the choice, he wouldn't let the Blue Moon Crystal out of his sight. Or the Princess wouldn't at least. I could see her grabbing it when she fled during the coup to warn them and get them away."

"Speaking of the occupation and politics…" Her Vice Admiral led off casually. "Vigoro's Vice Admiral just finished the transfer of command to the garrison we have stationed in Yafutoma."

"How did our demoted admiral handle his change in station?"

"Grumbling, but knowing there was little he could do about it." Rawlins explained. "Minister of State Kurowei actually got in touch with us after your little stunt earlier today. He said that you handled the incident with 'remarkable delicacy.' I suppose that was meant to be complimentary."

"About as complimentary as that man gets." Belleza pointed out. "He's a snake."

"True. But he's _our_ snake." Rawlins answered.

_For now,_ Belleza thought. The man had been the Emperor's most trusted advisor, and he'd betrayed one master already. She'd be a fool to think he wouldn't try to do so again. "Speaking of Kangan Kurowei, how has the integration of his own forces and ours been going?"

"Fractious, at times. Today didn't help any." He explained. "Followup reports indicated that they didn't exactly warn Vigoro and that squad about the misunderstandings they were operating under, and that when things went wrong, they were curiously absent."

"Setting us up to fail and take the heat, while holding himself up as the beleaguered native." Belleza pointed at him. "Tomorrow, first thing, get in touch with your fellow Vice Admiral. I want the two of you to work up some guidelines so I don't have to clean up another mess like that."

"I'll take care of it, ma'am." He nodded. "There was one other thing; Minister Kurowei passed along a request."

"What did he say?"

"Actually, he wrote it down." Rawlins reached to the inner pocket of his uniform coat and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Apparently, _written_ Mid-Ocean was easier for him than spoken. Or he just wanted a paper trail."

She took the note, broke the wax seal on it, and then read it briefly before scowling. "Astounding. He wants to put his _son_ in charge of the _Delphinus._ In the 'interests of cooperation between the Valuan Empire and the Vassal Territories of Yafutoma.' Who the hell does he think he is?"

"Currently, the only thing standing between us and the entire population of Yafutoma rioting and ruining all our hard work."

She made a face. "Damn him. And Lord Galcian _needs this_ to go smoothly."

Belleza was looking away from her vice admiral, so she didn't see his face when he spoke. "Does he? Or do you just want it to go smoothly to try and win his affections?"

She jerked her head up and stared at him. Daniel Rawlins, Vice Admiral of the 4th Fleet. Her trusted right hand, a capable messenger and coordinations expert, but without her skill in subterfuge and spycraft. Five years her senior and never sore about it. In fact, he'd never had a cross word for her aside from berating her for taking too much on herself and relying on risky operations too often, in his opinion. He wasn't one for the enormous helmets that were standard in the Armada and preferred his officer's longcoat, allowing him to wear his service medals and his epaulets.

He was looking at her with those blue-gray eyes of his, chin resting on his hand again, and the short-trimmed brown hair on his scalp had only the faintest touch of thinning along the top. He looked at her in pity.

"Excuse you?" She found herself demanding of him. Dan's face got even sadder.

"He doesn't love you, Nadia." He told her. "He's just _using_ you. He's always used you. Has he ever shown you any courtesy? Sent you a token for a job well done? Has he done _anything_ that a man would normally do for a woman he was interested in?"

"How dare you." She seethed, rising up and staring him down. "How _dare_ you. What business is it of yours who I consort with?!"

"It's my business when it interferes with your job!" Her Vice Admiral insisted, staying seated but looking no less bitter about the conversation. "It's my business when you pine after him and _starve_ yourself because you think it'll make him notice you! It's my business when all he has to do is hook his finger in your direction and you go running off after him! It's my business when you come back a few hours later looking rumpled and miserable and reaching for alcohol, wondering what you did to drive him away. It's not you, Nadia, it's never been you!"

She was trembling with rage and hurt, and he wore an apology openly.

"It's him." He finished, softer than before. "He doesn't have enough of a heart in him to love you the way you deserve. He never did. All he knows, all he cares about, is power."

Tears stung at her eyes. "And did you ever think that maybe I want power as well? That I might want him because he's so powerful?"

"You don't want power, Nadia, you -"

"Call me _Admiral!"_ She thundered, and he bit his lip and ducked his eyes down.

"Admiral. You want _control._ That's different than power. You always wanted control over your own life. I can't imagine the kind of hell you went through as a woman in the Academy and the officer corps. Having to face that kind of a double standard. It's why you're so good at your job. You're used to wearing masks. You're used to finding weaknesses in others. You _had_ to. It was how you survived. But you don't need it. Not here."

"Don't I?" She huffed frostily. "My own Vice Admiral thinks to comment on my life as though he had a vested interest in it. What, are you going to try and blackmail me? It won't work, others have tried."

"I have _never_ said anything to anyone about you in all the years I have served under you. And do you really know my weakness?"

"Of course I do."

"Do you?" Daniel asked her flatly, and stared at her face without a shred of any guarded expression or a mask at all. It stopped her cold as she looked at him, _really_ looked at him for the first time in all the years she'd known him, and saw -

"You…" Her legs suddenly weak, she sank back down to her chair. "It's me?" Vice Admiral Daniel Rawlins nodded his head once, lips pressed tightly together. She blinked, shook her head. "No. It's impossible. You never -"

He smiled, and that made her stop. "When could I have said anything? It's against regulations. You're my superior officer."

"How long?" She got out, her throat going dry.

"Long enough." He shrugged and looked away. "You deserve better than him, Nadia." She went to answer him, and found that she couldn't speak. He took her silence to mean something else. "I won't risk your career. I'll put in for a transfer. I'll resign my commission first. There will be other Vice Admirals."

"Don't, Daniel." She begged him suddenly, and he turned his head back around and looked at her with something that made her freeze and feel miserable. He looked at her with hopeful longing.

She shut her eyes. "I need you where you are."

"You deserve better. You deserve more."

"Maybe." Belleza got out. But what she wanted, what she _deserved_ wasn't what she got. It never had been. She sucked in a lungful of air. "You - you should go. You need to go."

Silence, and then the sound of his chair pushing back away. "As my Admiral commands." He said, and she heard him pick up the serving tray with their dirty dishes. "Are you coming back to the _Lynx_ tonight, Admiral Belleza?"

"I think it's better if I don't." She whispered, hurting and heartsore, hating herself and hating him for dropping all of that on her. "Please go." He did so with slow and loud footsteps, and the door to the cabin opened and closed with a steady click, leaving her alone again.

Numbly, she got up and wandered over to the bed built large enough and lavish enough for a king on voyage where her Vice Admiral had stacked all of her notes for her profile on Vyse. She straightened them out and prepared herself to read them, and - just. Couldn't.

She sank onto the bed, tired and emotionally exhausted and lonely. The weight she never let anyone else see, ever, manifested. No, that wasn't true.

She'd let Vyse see a glimpse of it. Just once, back when she had tried to seduce him. That had scared her after the fact. At the time, she'd only managed to feel hurt and jealous that he refused her.

Belleza let her notes drop out of her hand and rolled onto her side, staring towards the head of the bed and the enormous congregation of pillows arranged there. More than one person would ever reasonably require.

"Blue Rogues." She whispered, thinking of the Code. How they helped others who were weaker. How they never backed down against aggression and tyranny. How they never left anyone behind. Or never gave up. And how they always, _always,_ even in the face of their own destruction, flew free and never submitted.

Even among the Blue Rogues she'd heard of, had there ever been another Rogue (Even his father who must have created the Code), who lived up to those simple virtues as honestly as Vyse did? She'd been looking to him as a mystery to be solved, a puzzle to be unlocked. Yet for every member of the crew that she had questioned, she found nothing in his words or in his actions that was useful as blackmail. Her study of his personality, by the words of those who traveled with him, lent him the status of a nigh-mythical heroic figure, a man who stood strong and unbowed with his heart out for all to see. He was a man who challenged others to become more than what they were, helped them to reach for their dreams. He had turned Ilchymis from a hermit into a ship's doctor, converted brigands and buccaneers to sail under the Blue flag instead of the Black. He had saved a child that nobody ever gave a thought for, and by Kalifa's ledger, had two beautiful women fighting for his affections…

She stopped and blinked, staring to the pillows at the head of the bed. Too many for one person, she'd thought, and dismissed, as idle observation.

Belleza rolled onto her hands and knees and crawled up to those pillows, pushing the rumpled covers away from them and searching for a clue that nobody else in her employ would have thought to try and locate. She searched for hairs...and she found them.

Amidst the rumpled sheets, she found strands of hair that had gotten stuck to them and to the pillows. Brown hairs. Vyse's. Platinum blonde. _Fina's._

But there were red hairs as well, and even more curiously, sometimes the blonde and red strands were intertwined and stuck together. She held the evidence in her trembling hands and realized she had the missing piece of the puzzle of Vyse, the most troublesome of the Blue Rogues. Nobody who had placed a bet in Kalifa's ledger was going to win. Nobody on the crew who'd made a wager on which girl he was with had been right.

Belleza's laugh was incredulous and cracked a little at the end as she clenched her hand around the evidence. "Both of them." She whispered, and felt her eyes burn. "You're with _both_ of them." And if she had to guess, the girls were an item as well. She remembered how Fina had drawn close to Aika when they saw Vigoro. Which meant it was _all three._

She thought back to that night in Nasr that she'd offered herself to him.

_I won't do that to them._

Even before they'd ever made a move, he had known his heart and known they both had a place in it. Belleza sank her head down on the pillows and breathed in slowly, smelling the scent of him, of Aika and Fina. Of them.

It was unnatural. It was unspeakable. It was a perversion that would never stand in Valuan society. She cried all the more because of that. She understood him at last, and realized she was jealous of him. But also she was jealous of his women. His women who were both taking the same contraception that Dr. Argas had manufactured for them. Because of who they were with. Because neither could risk being gravid in the middle of their war against Valua.

_I hope someday your man accepts you for the treasure you are._

She was the Admiral of the 4th Fleet, the leading officer of the Expedition to the Lands under the Blue Moon. She had power that others craved, a position of respect and fear. But she didn't have control, and she didn't have love.

Crying silently, Belleza fell asleep surrounded by the smell of the Blue Rogues who had gotten away from her, and who had the freedom to love and _be loved_ by the partners that they longed for. They were braver than she was.

They flew free.


	34. Princes Of Arcadia

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Thirty-Four: Princes of Arcadia**

_Daigo Tokugawa knew from a young age that all the lands under the Blue Moon would be his to rule one day. The servants called him 'young prince' and his father, a serious man most of the time, would remind him of his duty. For all that his father was serious, he would also smile and laugh when he was in private with his son and Daigo's mother._

_ He stopped smiling as often after the night that Daigo's sister was born. Moegi was brought into the world at the cost of her mother's life, and for a time, it seemed a poor trade to Daigo. But then his father brought him out of it._

_ "One day, you will rule this land, my son." Mikado Tokugawa said to him, while they stood by the rail of their royal barge during a goodwill tour of the distant islands and settlements. "You will be given great power, but you must always use it wisely. You must be a protector to your people, for that is the duty of the Emperor. We spend our lives in service, keeping them safe and preserving the peace. That is what is most important in the life of an Emperor, Daigo." Then he had smiled and ruffled his hair. "And no matter what happens, my son, look after your sister. It was not her fault that your mother died. She is a gift, the last gift your mother gave to us. Can you do that? Can you treasure Moegi, can you keep her safe?"_

_ Daigo remembered feeling disappointed in himself for ever despising his baby sister. He was seven years old then, and he made a new vow. He would be his sister's guardian. He would be her hero._

_ At first that meant keeping vigil in her rooms when she was sick, helping the nursemaids when she cried because of an ear ache or the rash that every child seemed to get when they were a year or two of age. She would calm down more readily when he held her, and when she got older and started to talk, there were some nights his sister would walk from her room to his because she had a bad dream. After the sentries got tired of catching her and taking her back, Daigo showed her how to use the secret passages between his rooms and hers, as his father had showed him how. _

_ When Moegi was six and Daigo was thirteen years of age, his training in the ways of combat began in earnest. Like his father, he studied the way of the sword, the ancient code of lordship and honorable service. In magic, he had no great talent to speak of. The bulk of his focus was not in the ways of the Blue Moon, which granted power over the winds and the waves, nor in the much rarer talents of healing with the strange green moonstones that the most adventurous of explorers and traders were sometimes able to locate along the Great Stone Curtain in the far east. No. What little spiritual power Daigo held was wrapped up in the strength of his body and the strength of his talents in combat. _

_ When Moegi was seven and her studies in writing and numbers also saw a greater focus in etiquette and household management, Daigo was the first to see that she wasn't happy. He could not keep her from the role she was born to, but he did make it a goal to make her smile more often. When she became fascinated with the tale of Daqat the Westerner and the Princess Kikue who had been stolen away by him, Daigo found himself conscripted into her extracurricular learning. She learned to speak the Western tongue, and Daigo, eager to keep a smile on his precious sister's face, learned as well. Though he was nowhere near as talented in it as she would become because of her earlier start, he became passable enough that it became a fractured secret language between them. _

_ When Daigo turned eighteen and reached the age of majority, his status as Crown Prince was formally recognized by the Imperial Court. Fully trained and eager to prove himself, Daigo dismissed the idea of a royal tour and instead decided to serve on a vessel of the small but proud Imperial Navy. His argument was sound. How could he command such men, the guardians and caretakers of their people, with no understanding of the challenges they faced, the weapons they used, the ships they sailed? He saw the vast breadth of his father's domain and his future responsibilities first as a sailor and then with progressively higher ranks until after three years, he was serving as the second in command of the _Dragon's Breath,_ a twelve gun ship of the line responsible for patrolling the trade routes between the outer islands and the inner domain. _

_ When Daigo was eighteen, he learned that Yafutoma had very dark shadows within it. _

_ The worst of them were closest to home, and they took everything from him._

* * *

_Tenkou Island_

_Northern Yafutoman Airspace, Upper Sky_

_189 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Mid-Morning_

One upside to being exiled, and being the commander of a pseudo-air pirate/resistance movement was that barring major events, Daigo got to set his own hours. As a young man, his schedule had been obsessively planned out for him, typically starting with waking up before the sun had even risen for early morning exercise and training. He'd learned the value at last of sleeping in, now that he no longer had the weight of being prepared to rule an empire sitting on his shoulders. Especially when he'd shared more than a moderate amount of rice wine with his fellows who insisted on serving him as bodyguards.

Officially, his home was labeled as 'Exile Island', and had before its abandonment, served as a monastery to a group of cloistered monks who practiced meditation, wholeness of body and spirit, and had forsworn martial combat for unarmed defense. The aged structures, built with an ancient and skilled form of wood joinery that worked without nails or glues, had held up even when the monastic order had died out. Shortly after, the island had been reclaimed and repurposed by the dynasty before the Tokugawas as a long-term prison for outcasts and foes too dangerous to leave alone, but too valuable to put to the sword. The first resident had been a nobleman's daughter who had tried to elope with a younger brother of the previous dynasty's crown prince. She had died four years after her arrival by suicide, broken-hearted at the news of her beloved's marriage to another and the birth of a son that was not hers. Such was the grief felt by his great-uncle that the man had, against the wishes of his new wife, sponsored the placement of an elaborate rooftop garden with plants capable of surviving at the high altitudes. Those gardens had been the means of keeping the island sustainable for its various guests over the years, guests that ran the gamut from criminals who were never formally charged or acknowledged for various reasons to simple embarrassments that the ruling family preferred to put out of sight and mind.

By the time Daigo arrived, the gardens had picked up a wide variety of herbs and foodstuffs which had been allowed to run wild and go to seed. The experience of learning how to garden for his own meals had been a humbling one, but necessary when the ships that had been supplying him stopped coming without warning. One more insult laid at his door. And speaking of insults…

His home was typically quiet at this time of day, but now Daigo found himself groaning as he heard Jao and Mao shouting out in the courtyard. Were those two idiots training again? They'd run back to him fuming with tales of Westerners in a great metal ship that bested their patrol, and a crew able to match them in combat days ago, and it was possible that they'd decided to brush up on their skills. But that didn't explain the other shouting he heard, in a combination of Yafutoman and…

Daigo yawned and kept his eyes closed to try and fend off the light that spilled in and worsened his headache. That didn't sound Yafutoman. And there were female voices. There were women in the Tenkou, but the ones he heard weren't them.

It was a few more seconds before he placed the other language he was hearing, and the jolt of it made him snap his eyes open.

_The Western Tongue. _

Hangover be damned, he lurched out of bed and stumbled out of his room and through the first floor of the building until he reached the thick front doors. He pushed them open and shivered a little as the cold air from the outside hit the skin of his bare shoulder and scarred chest, which made the old injury pucker a little. Daigo found himself staring as Jao and Mao, the classic fight-happy knuckleheads, were in a standoff with a small band of tired, but still dangerous seeming people of wildly differing dress and appearance, along with…

"Moegi?!" Daigo blurted out, which had the much appreciated effect of getting everyone else to _shut up_ and stop threatening the other with their fists and their weapons.

They all looked like hell, but Moegi was especially ragged. By the Blue Moon, his sister had become a stunningly beautiful young woman in the years he'd been in exile. But her once pristine robes were dirtied and her hair was out of its coif in a few places. He'd never seen her face so gaunt and marred by sorrows as it was now. Moegi had always been bright in his presence as a girl, and even when they both were older that the weight of their responsibilities settled into place, there were secret smiles and conversations that he and his darling little sister had for themselves alone. There was none of that brightness in her now, and it set him on edge and made his head pound all the worse. Relief shone on her face for all of two seconds before absolute grief replaced it, and she rushed towards him, sobbing openly.

Just as he'd done for her when they were young, Daigo found it the easiest thing in the world to open his arms and let her crash into him at speed before wrapping her up again.

"Moegi. What are you doing here? What's wrong?" He asked her, looking over her head to the four people who had come with her. The four _Westerners._

_"Oh, you __**have**__ to be Daigo." _The red-haired woman spoke in the Western tongue, but with an unfamiliar cadence that took him a moment to place and reorder. Moegi must have caught him blinking to make sense of it, because she spoke next.

"Brother. There are many things to discuss, but you need to know two things before we go further. First, these four are not our enemies, but something closer to friends."

"Verily." The yellow-haired girl in the silver dress and veil said, stepping forward from her other comrades and bowing. "What the Princess Moegi speaks is truth. I am Fina, and beside me are my dearest friends and allies in the world, Aika, Captain Vyse of the Blue Rogues, and Enrique, exiled from his homeland and now fighting against it. As we hope you will also."

Daigo's hangover reached truly marvelous levels of pain at that revelation, wondering why his sister and these four strangers would come to him looking so disheveled and worn and pleading for his help. Did they know of his Tenkou? No, they couldn't have. Even now, Moegi was staring at the pair with open confusion, looking between them and Daigo with an unsettling focus.

He swallowed. "Moegi, what was the second thing I need to know?"

Moegi opened her mouth to speak and froze, tears coming to her eyes again. She looked to the Westerners, and it was the yellow-haired man, Enrique, who answered in the Western tongue. His face was full of regret and rage.

_"My homeland of Valua, a corrupt and evil empire bent on ruling the world, has invaded Yafutoma. Our ship and our comrades are captured and Minister Kangan Kurowei has allied himself with the invaders, and deposed your father."_

Daigo blinked as he picked through the words, cursing how rusty his talent in the Western tongue was, how he'd let it lapse, and how much it had clearly changed in the two centuries since the time of _Daqat._

"Are you telling me that...That Kangan has betrayed our people? That Yafutoma has fallen to an invading force?" He looked at Moegi. "Does father live?" She bit her lip and could not speak.

"We do not know." The Lady Fina confessed. "When it happened, it was all we could manage to save your sister and escape. She told us that we had to come and find you."

His head pounding, Daigo thinned his eyes to slits to keep out the blazing sunshine. "Inside, please. We have much to talk about."

* * *

_ The view of the great Yafutoman Empire was much different out among the islands than in the royal palace or within the walls of Yafutoma City. The crew of the _Dragon's Breath_ was stiff around him at first, and he found himself a little put off until he realized that the crew didn't quite know how to act around him. He was their Prince, and that role usually required obeisance and kowtowing, but he was acting in a role as their equal or military superior, subordinate only to the captain._

_ Daigo settled the matter at dinnertime the first evening by asking the captain, in full view of the crew working through their rice bowls, to treat him as any other sailor in the fleet. A wave of something akin to relief passed among the men, and while there was still some polite reticence, they were more willing to meet his gaze and give him a nod or even a punch on the shoulder._

_ His experience in serving on other ships had lent him an air of quiet confidence and command that Daigo found fitted much more naturally than the blind deference usually due to royalty and the high-ranking members of the Court. For their part, the men who served under him found him, in time, of being someone worthy of respect and needful of camaraderie. Their patrols had been routine, and signs of piracy had been nonexistent. Officially, they were part of a larger group of scout ships serving under a rear admiral. Unofficially, the _Dragon's Breath_ had orders to keep well clear of any actual engagements or dustups, something that Daigo found out three weeks after being assigned to it and overhearing the communications officer complaining to the captain about the 'Milk run assignment.'_

_ That directive didn't last long once Daigo started __**doing his job.**__ It said something about his crew that most of them felt as chafed by it as he did. They were a patrol ship, a ship meant to travel fast, strike fast, and deal with minor troubles. The larger vessels of the Yafutoman fleet were powerhouses, vessels full of men and cannons, with the _Emperor's Own_ weighing in as a first-rate with thirty-six cannons arrayed along two gundecks. They were the ships that got called in when the trouble was serious, when a statement needed to be made. Problems had to be found first, though. And that? That, Daigo finally convinced his captain, was something that they were all ready for. He'd trained the men even harder, drilling the cannon crews, getting even the most clumsy sailor able to point a sword and a spear in the right direction and not lose hold of it when they went up against an enemy attacker. They had gone searching for pirates, and found themselves stumbling on the edges of something bigger. A smuggling ring._

_ It began, strangely enough, with a village that they stopped at to refill their water barrels and buy some more rice. It was small and run down and the people were afraid of them, something that confused Daigo and turned his stomach. Curious as to why, he first tried asking around and got only silence and pursed lips and heads that shook, dismissing any hint of something being wrong. His next idea bordered on the crazy, but it was one that his captain signed off on, the man being as concerned as he was. _

_ The _Dragon's Breath_ left the village that evening, but a token squad made up of Daigo as the commander and a half dozen other sailors who Daigo had trained up in martial combat and had volunteered for the duty stayed behind, vanishing into the fields and the rice paddies. Their vigilance paid off when a different naval vessel parked there, smaller than the _Dragon's Breath_ at only six guns. A dozen men disembarked from it and passed through the village as the bulk of the civilians ducked inside their houses and averted their eyes. Daigo and his small band followed the other party of Yafutoman sailors, who were dressed in slipshod fashion and swaggered with an air of cruelty, up away from the small village and its harbor, and up into the highlands clear of the rice fields. _

_ There, they found a different kind of field entirely, one of poppies, worked by farmers bound together by rope and iron collars and guarded by rough-looking men that brandished whips and wore ragged swords at their belts. It made Daigo's blood boil. The sailors off of the ship that had parked left the secret poppy fields with bags of product that, under proper supervision, were turned into potent painkillers used by the Yafutoman healers where green magic was not available or would not be of use with the more crippling and often terminal illnesses. The production of poppies was restricted and heavily monitored and licensed, a measure meant to stop the flow of another byproduct. Opium was a scourge upon the land that left its users debilitated and hopelessly addicted, wasting away as they chased the insensate condition it created._

_ Daigo sent one sailor, the stealthiest among them, to trail the other party of sailors back to their ship and to confirm the name of the vessel and to get a look at their command crew if possible. The other five, Daigo kept at his side, waiting for an hour for the ship to depart and fly away before they struck._

_ Of the cruel guards, some were killed trying to defend themselves. Some were injured and captured, and a few at the end wisely surrendered, realizing that they were going up against trained and deadly opponents. Daigo freed the enslaved farmers and had them tear up the fields, piling all the plants together and then lighting a bonfire that sent black smoke curling up into the clear night sky._

_ He and his men returned with the freed farmers and the now imprisoned guards of the camp in tow, and the village cheered and wept for the return of their missing family members, whose fates and survival, miserable as it was working the poppy fields, had been bought at the price of their silence._

_ The next day, the _Dragon's Breath_ docked once more, and Daigo made his report. The witnesses were interviewed and scroll after scroll of personal accounts from the villagers and interrogations of the guards were made for the records. _

_ Not sure of who they could trust, their documentation and the prisoners they kept locked away belowdecks for the time being, and they sent no message up the chain of command. It was clear that the navy had been suborned for personal profit. Until they knew just how deep the rot ran, it was better to say nothing that might alert their prey. Forewarned was forearmed._

_ The ship that had docked the night before had been a scouting vessel, the _Blue Gale._ The _Dragon's Breath_ sailed out, in defiance of their orders to avoid trouble, with a mission to find the ship and arrest its crew for conspiracy and violation of every law on the books regarding the raising of poppies. _

_ Daigo felt his world growing darker, and he used the memory and the letters written to him by his dear sister to remind him of why he was racing headlong into danger._

'You must be a protector to your people, for that is the duty of the Emperor.' _Daigo pulled strength from his father's words of long ago, and trained the men harder still. They would need to be ready for anything, the captain said, and Daigo agreed with the older man wholeheartedly. _

_ He could not have known how unprepared they would be for what they would find._

* * *

_Tenkou Island_

_Lunch_

To Daigo's surprise and immense relief, the Lady Fina proved to be a stunningly effective mage and wise woman, sussing out his headache seconds after they came inside with Jao and Mao bringing up the rear and scowling the entire time. She had a passable, but slightly archaic knowledge of the Yafutoman tongue, while everyone else in her party spoke the Western tongue exclusively. Moegi was able to bounce back and forth between them quite handily, and between his sister and the woman in silver, Daigo had soon given Fina permission to try and heal him.

Her hands glowing silver and a faint gleam of that aura ringing around her blue eyes, Fina took away his hangover and his migraine and even the aches in his body in a matter of seconds. It exhausted her, and Daigo saw again just how ragged they were, how much they had pushed themselves to even _get here safely._ He barked at Jao and Mao, and in short order, mineral water and cold preserved fish and vegetables were brought out while the pair that considered themselves his trusted bodyguards scattered into the kitchen to cook up some rice and some soup. The Westerners and his sister fell upon the small repast quickly, and Daigo was discouraged to learn that it was their first true meal in three days. Since Yafutoma had fallen. Since they had escaped capture and saved his sister from the same.

He owed them for that alone. He might never be able to pay them back for everything.

While the full meal was served and consumed, Daigo used the time to speak to them, improving and re-learning his very rusty Western tongue, which they called _Mid-Ocean tradespeak,_ and getting a broader picture of their time in Yafutoma. Jao and Mao's anger towards them made a little more sense now, as it became clear that these four young people were _very_ dangerous under the right circumstances, when pressed into it, and their ship was even more so. A ship that now was in the hands of a foreign enemy who had flown into the heart of his father's empire and laid off of the harbor with every gun pointed at the heart of it.

Small wonder that they were all so downcast and desperate. Daigo found himself reeling at the news of upwards of twenty metal ships like the one that had been Vyse's, ships far more advanced than that of Yafutoma's navy. Deadlier. Ships meant not for war but for outright conquest. He wanted to press them further, but he could see how bone tired they all were, so he relented, and set them up in some extra guest rooms. One for the men, one for the women, and a third, closest to his, for his sister.

Moegi refused to sleep right away, though. Long after the others had thanked him and gone off for some much needed rest, she sat with her legs folded underneath her at the low-set dining table and drank more of the green tea that Jao had prepared for them all.

"Not what you thought you would wake up to this morning, was it?" She finally asked him. That thin hint of humor beneath her once more schooled expression was enough to make Daigo snort and raise an eyebrow in her direction.

"I'm not certain how I'm supposed to react to all of this." Daigo muttered, pouring himself another saucer of rice wine and scratching at his chin after. "After all his years of scheming behind the throne, Kangan has revealed the depths of his treachery. Yafutoma has fallen. Father is, if not dead already, soon to be dead. Kangan would not risk killing him directly, but I can see that snake allowing our father to wither in captivity until he surrenders the crown and the Mandate of Heaven. His life would be forfeit afterwards. The Tokugawa Dynasty is ended, and we are nothing more than an afterthought now."

Moegi sat up a little straighter and stared at him. "So what do we do now?"

"Do?" Daigo snorted, throwing back his saucer of alcohol in one snort. He swallowed and let the burn eat away at his throat and his sinuses before shaking his head. "You are safe, and I can keep you safe. Beyond that, I think there is little that you can do."

"We can fight, brother." Moegi insisted. "This is why we came here. I knew that you could help us. Especially now that I know you have friends in the Tenkou."

"The Tenkou were a nuisance to the Yafutoman navy, and to Minister Kangan." Daigo dismissed the idea sourly. "Against these great metal ships from a foreign land? What chance do we stand? No. Even if we stood a chance, how willing do you think the Tenkou would be to aid these four Westerners you have allied with, when they are responsible for sinking other Tenkou ships and killing the men on them? Even if they were to fight now, their ship is lost."

Moegi's black eyes flared with anger. "Your people need you. Yafutoma _needs you._ There is _no one else_ who we can turn to! Are you so afraid that you won't do anything?!"

Daigo ground his teeth together, and then pointedly ran a hand across the enormous scar on the front of his broad chest, the thick line that went from his right shoulder and down towards his navel. "I have done more than most would ever _dare,_ dear sister, and I have paid for it." With his title. With his future. Nearly with his life. "Why should I act now and risk my life, the lives of the few Tenkou who I know of that _might_ listen to me?"

"Because if you do not, then Yafutoma will _die._ And if Yafutoma falls, the world falls with it!" She snapped at him, reverting to Mid-Ocean right after. _"Are you still the brother I remember, or just a bitter man willing to sit and drink sake while everything burns around him?!"_

Were it anyone else who yelled that at him, who accused him of cowardice, Daigo would have slugged them for the impertinence. He rolled his shoulders, cleared his throat, and glared back at her. "You're more fiery than I remember."

"It's been almost ten years." Moegi said back to him, tears coming to her eyes. "You have suffered, Daigo. I know this. I can see it on your body and in your eyes. But do you think that I haven't? Without you there to protect me? I went from being promised to Kangan's _worthless_ son to watching my world collapse around me. You weren't there. But those four from the west...Prince Enrique...they were there."

She stood up, smoothed out her dress, and slipped her hands into the sleeves of her robe, bowing formally to him. "I think I _shall_ retire, after all. I leave you with one last thing to consider. What does it say about Prince Enrique and the other three Westerners that they are willing to stand up to this Valua and fight on regardless of the danger, when you are not?"

Eyes blurry with tears, Moegi walked past him and in the direction of the room set aside for her.

Daigo sighed and poured himself another saucer of _sake._

It could mean that they were better than he was.

Or perhaps it meant only that they hadn't learned the bitter lesson yet that he had.

* * *

_ The _Dragon's Breath_ caught up to the _Blue Gale _two days after leaving the village and the still smouldering poppy fields behind them. Pretending to be just another ship, they raised a flag of hailing along with an invitation for a meeting between the officers. Such offers were common among ships in the fleet, and were typically a means of sharing libations. As Daigo and his captain had hoped, the _Gale_ took the offer and slowed down so the slightly larger _Dragon's Breath_ could pull up beside them. Mooring lines were tied up and a hooked bridge raised between them so the captain and first officer of the other ship could come aboard. Their crew, having been briefed and prepared, quickly got out flasks and jugs of their own, eager to 'share' with their opposing sailors. _

_ Half an hour later, the inebriated crew of the _Blue Gale_ had been subdued and the captain and first officer of that ship found themselves under arrest. The bags of poppies that Daigo's man had seen their crew walking off with were located down in the hold, and the crew logbook, course logs and captain's journal were all brought aboard as well. They had enough evidence for the _Blue Gale_ to be impounded and its officers, if not the entire crew, brought up on very stiff charges. When pressed for the names of any other contacts that they were working with, however, the _Gale's_ crew remained tight-lipped. They caught enough from the ship's records to see where they were headed - the woods along the base of holy Mount Kazai._

_ His captain urged for caution. They had no idea what they were flying into. They had no idea what kind of forces might be massed there. An entire den of pirates? More corrupt naval officers and sailors? And the evidence they had collected, there were procedures to be followed, and it would not do to lose all of it. Daigo found there was wisdom in the man's suggestions. Or perhaps they were carefully worded orders. The _Blue Gale_ tied up and towed behind them with a token crew to watch the tightly bound crew in the hold, they sailed for the Roshu Naval Base along the northern wall that surrounded Yafutoma City and the islands that surrounded it, due to Roshu having a permanent judicial presence. It took them a day to offload the personnel they'd arrested and to supply the judicial administrators with the mountain of evidence that they had collected. In the face of it, the crew of the _Blue Gale_ at last looked fearful. That, at least, was worth the time they spent waiting for all of the evidence to be unloaded, catalogued, and the charges formalized. A member of the naval judiciary was even tasked with flying with them to act as observer, primary witness, and to ensure that evidence collected in their upcoming raid would be held above suspicion. _

_ The delay had been necessary, yet it proved to be costly. By the time they arrived at the coordinates indicated on the _Gale's _navigation table, there were only burning ruins left where a long, single story building with a makeshift loading dock for airships had been. It smelled strongly of a poppy processing building, the sweet and yet acrid sting of it forcing them to keep upwind as the poisonous vapors wafted up and away in the black smoke. They swept around the site and went looking for the culprits, but found none. The opium processing den had turned into a dead end. _

_ Things were worse when they flew back to Roshu, and learned that both the captain and first officer of the _Blue Gale_ had been found dead in their cells, both having apparently hung themselves with their own clothes. There was enough evidence to convict the other men of the _Gale,_ but none of them knew who their contacts at the opium facility were, or anything of any other conspirators. 'An unfortunate loss,' the words were bandied about. Daigo seethed, knowing even without proof what had happened. Someone higher up had cut off the exposed elements of their operation to save themselves from being exposed._

_ The _Dragon's Breath_ resupplied and went off on assignment again, with fresh orders to travel someplace well clear of any real danger or difficulty. _

_ Daigo tendered his resignation, but kept in contact with his crew via messenger post. He had an opium smuggling ring to uncover, and it was clear that it could not be done through normal means. Amidst the protests of his former shipmates, against the wishes of his father who had told him in no uncertain terms to return back home and to __**not**__ go poking his head around into this seedy and illicit business, Daigo slipped out of view of the world._

_ His last letter was written to Moegi in the Western tongue, their secret language. _I must save our people. Have faith in your brother. Be safe.

* * *

_Tenkou Island_

_After Dinner_

The evening meal had been civil, although stiff. Vyse had looked like death warmed over, and hadn't even stayed to sup properly. As soon as he'd packed up three meals' worth of rice and grilled fish with vegetables, he'd wandered back in the direction of the rooms set aside for them. Enrique had deflected Daigo's curiosity, smiling gently and telling him, with a crisp translation from Moegi, that the other two women were still too tired to make a formal appearance and that Vyse had volunteered to bring them their meals. Moegi had excused herself not long after, claiming fatigue. Daigo knew that much was true, at least, she hadn't been faking how exhausted she was. How exhausted they all were. It left him alone with Enrique, who watched him with curious eyes, but held off from battering him with questions. While they were eating, at least. It was after, when Daigo had switched from rice wine to a more soothing blend of green tea with herbal accents that Enrique spoke up. Daigo found himself glad for the practice earlier in the day, for even with it, he felt like much of what the prince of Valua was saying to him was being lost in translation. The nuance, at least.

_"You look very strong." _Enrique volunteered carefully. _"Do you study the sword?"_

Daigo blinked, looking to the thin and tapered blade that Enrique had at his waist. _"Not like yours." _He conceded, a halting but accurate answer. Enrique smiled back at him.

_"Can we train? Morning tomorrow?"_

_"With this goings on?"_ Daigo countered. Enrique shrugged.

_"We will fight Valua when we are strong. I must keep my skills sharp."_

Daigo found himself flummoxed at that, but the stale air of the interior of his 'prison' did not make for a rational conversation. _"Come outside. We talk more there."_

The former prince of Yafutoma felt better the moment he slid the paper door open and they stepped out into the night air. He breathed in deeply and expanded his chest, marveling at how easy it came. The massive scar from his shoulder and down the right side of his chest had forever been an aggravation he'd long since learned to live with, how the tough tissues that had healed through skin and muscle and sinew tugged at him. In the course of her healing, the Lady Fina must have done something there as well. The scar remained, but it no longer _tugged._ It no longer hurt. He could breathe more deeply, and somehow he suspected that he would still be able to even at lower elevations. It was freeing in a way he'd long given up on, and to Daigo, that added bit of freedom was so very sweet.

That was perhaps the one good thing about being exiled, though it had taken him a long while to realize it. He was free in a way that he had never been in the whole of his life; free to wake up when he wanted. Free to do what he wanted. Free, if not to go where he wanted, to live how he wanted. He had lived with a measure of peace knowing that he could still chip away at the corruption festering beneath the surface of his homeland with a freedom he'd never had as its crown prince.

Yet now his sister slept in the room next to his own, _Westerners_ from a dark empire had arrived and conquered Yafutoma with aid from within, and his father…

He had a strong feeling his father was not dead, but not enough to rely on it thoroughly. He didn't know what was going on. He _didn't know._

Ten years of exile had taught Daigo the value of patience, of waiting for the right moment to strike. That hard lesson made him stand and reach for the discarded sleeve of his robe, which had forever hung loosely because he hated the feel of fabric across his scar. He slipped it on, breathed, and felt no pain or discomfort.

_"The yellow hair one. She is good healer."_ Daigo told Enrique placidly.

_"The best."_ Enrique said, smiling. _"She can even revive the dead."_ Daigo's head snapped over to him in disbelief. The other prince shrugged. _"I do not lie. She and Aika both know the ways of the Green Moon, but she has been teaching Aika and our doctor the ways of the Silver Moon as well."_

That there were six Moons over the world, and that the Blue Moon which had been their only reference for so long was not _all_ but just a _part_ of that mystery had been another thing that Daigo was still struggling to grip with. But it was hard to refute the evidence, given how Valua was said to be under the lands of the Yellow Moon.

_"She loves you. She cares for you still." _Enrique said, breaking Daigo from his ruminating. _"She never forgot you, even when she was forbidden to speak your name."_

Daigo looked to the other man who was perhaps a year or two younger than himself if he had to guess. _"My sister spoke to you often?"_

_ "Getting here took three days."_ Enrique said, raising an eyebrow. _"We had little food and water on board and there were five of us. None of us felt like doing very much, not after watching Yafutoma burn as we escaped. So, we talked. I think that she knows more about the rest of Arcadia than anyone else in your lands now. But she always said - you were needed. That you could help us."_ Enrique drummed his hand against the side of his sword. _"Was she wrong?"_

Daigo hummed. _"What is possible?" _He countered. _"Just one ship, just _one_ beat back Jao and Mao's small fleet that watched the borders."_

_"Why were they?"_

_"What?"_

_ "Watching the borders." _Enrique explained. _"Daccat sailed 200 years ago. Nobody came since."_

Ah. Well, Daigo could see the confusion. _"Jao and Mao are Tenkou. They were not there for __**you.**__ They were looking for others."_

Enrique thought about it. Daigo could see the moment when he caught on. _"Kangan. He had men loyal to him?"_

_"Tenkou do not fight to conquer Yafutoma." _Daigo scratched at his chin. _"They fight to save it."_

_ "From wicked men." _Enrique rumbled. _"These Tenkou. I think we should meet them. Vyse should."_

_ "Why?"_

_ "Blue Rogues fight to save the world from Valua, and the evil that rules it. Tenkou fight to save Yafutoma from the same." _Enrique shrugged. _"We will fight them again. If they could help...We would welcome it. I do not know how close you are to them, but Jao and Mao know you. Maybe they can tell their leaders we are wiling to help."_

Daigo sighed. _"Westerners invade. Now other Westerners want to help."_

Enrique rolled his shoulders. He looked up at the stars, huffing lightly in a way that Daigo knew meant that the foreign prince was struggling to keep his wind in him. He must have lived most of his life in the middling altitudes. No, likely all of it.

_"Yafutoma must not be conquered. Yafutoma must stand." _Enrique told him. _"From one exiled prince to another, Daigo, I say this. Your people need you. Moegi took us here because she cannot do this alone."_

Daigo shook his head. _"I am just a man in exile."_

_ "You are more than that, Daigo Tokugawa." _Enrique glared at him. _"You think I do not know exile? You were forced. I left on my own. Neither of us are the men we were before." _The other prince's face softened and he set a hand on Daigo's shoulder, having to reach up to do so. _"I am not less than I was. I am more. I believe this of you, also." _He smiled then, warm and knowing. _"We do not run away. Blue Rogues never run, not from danger that is great."_

The wording was strange and Daigo chewed through it. _"I hear that wrong?"_ He asked hesitantly. Enrique shrugged.

_"Probably. Moegi is learning. And teaching. Let me…"_ Enrique took in a breath and when he spoke again, it was in stilted Yafutoman. "Blue Rogue, not walk from great danger." He shrugged. _"We need her." _The yellow-haired prince laughed sheepishly. _"Moegi better at this." _

There was a spark of admiration and...oh. Attraction. The prince was attracted to his sister. Daigo batted down the urge to challenge him to combat then and there, there was no need. They would be sparring in the morning anyways, and it would be days before any of the Westerners would be strong enough to do something stupid and dangerous. They would, though. They had that fire about them. A fire Daigo was learning was stronger than his own.

Enrique said goodnight and walked back inside, yawning as he did. Daigo stayed out in the night air, enjoying the feeling of the cold breeze and the glimmer of the stars in the milky band of the sky above, and the gleaming blue moon shining brightly as ever.

He heard the settling of the rooftop above him and sighed.

"Jao. Mao."

"Yes, boss?" The first of the pair asked softly.

"Send a message to every one of our agents on our fastest ships." Daigo instructed them. "To every Tenkou. Tell them that the First summons them. Tell our agents in Yafutoma City to learn all they can and report back. Tell our shipmasters that the First orders the fleet mobilized."

"Yes, boss." Then they were gone with only the smallest clatter of feet on the lacquered wooden roof.

Daigo, the banished prince of Yafutoma, the Lord of the Tenkou, stood in the dark of the night. He breathed in deeply, savoring the feel of a chest without pain in it and a head steadily clearing of the aches he'd lived with for too long.

The last of the Tokugawa dynasty stirred beyond the sight of the invaders and the traitors of the land.

* * *

_He had lived as the crown prince, with his every need and whim taken care of. He had served as an officer of the fleet, where the essentials were covered, but a hard life of service was expected. The first month of his time operating on his own, in secret, was the hardest. Relying on his name, on royal assets, would have exposed him. Daigo needed to be as a shadow, and he didn't know how to, or how to survive on the streets._

_ Others did. Others who walked in the shadows when they had to saw what he was doing, what he intended, and took pity on him. None more than those of the Setsu clan, who he was surprised to learn were trained in the ancient arts of stealth, assassinations, and unseen combat. Osuma and Raiko had both sought to leave the life behind them, and had been his first point of contact after he almost got his ass handed to him by a group of thugs who worked as strongmen for the opium dens. They left out the training and lessons specific to their clans, but they gave him a handle on how to approach, see, and survive the seedy underworld of Yafutoma that he'd never known of. Daigo found himself grateful to them, and there was a soft spot in his heart for their two girls, Kirala and Urala. Looking at them, Daigo saw glimpses of his own sister, who was only a little older than Kirala. _

_ They hated what was being done, but they could not act themselves. The Old Clans and their old ways were known to those in power. The Setsus had once served the dynasty before the Tokugawas, their silent defenders and blades in the night. When the Tokugawas had assumed power, the old ways of poisoning and assassinations were outlawed. Daigo remembered his history lessons, how the last dynasty had become decadent, more concerned with their own amusements than with the well-being of the people. He remembered how the Old Clans had been their puppets, both willing and forced. Those who had been most complicit with the tyranny and brutality of the former reign had been hunted down by Daigo's ancestors and killed, often with the help of those who had been less obedient pawns. _

_ The Setsus had been one such clan who aided the Tokugawas. Their reward had been an 'offer' to retire from a life of blood and assassinations. The result had been a shift of Yafutoman society itself. Poisoners became master physicians. Silent blades became guards and messengers for his ancestors. Osuma was a skilled carpenter, and his oldest daughter Kirala seemed eager to follow in his footsteps. _

_ But clearly the old ways had not been forgotten, even if they weren't used. They couldn't be used. They were _known_ to the dark powers that gripped Yafutoma's underworld._

_ Daigo was not, and he could move and act freely in all the ways the Setsus couldn't. He left their home behind, wished them the best, and then never sought them out again. Their survival depended on going unnoticed, unsuspected._

_ Out of the dark corners of Yafutoma City, Daigo became a vengeful spirit. Opium dens were overturned and burned down, their patrons sent fleeing in escape while the dealers and the workers were interrogated and killed. He needed to know who was pulling the strings on the tangled web. It was a deadly game, and soon another name was fearfully whispered in the streets._

_ They called him the 'Wind's Blade', a scion of the Divine Wind. Those who'd been affected by the Opium dealers, whose families had been torn apart by it revered him. Those who had gained power from the suffering of others reviled him. It was frustrating work, with haphazard roadblocks thrown up to try and slow him down. Were he anyone else, it would have. Daigo's education allowed him to see the pattern of it, how the warehouses and the ships that were 'burned down' before he could get to them to find evidence were tied together. He had feared the conspiracy extended up into the upper echelons of the military, and was disturbed to find that he had been right, but only partially. His scope had not been wide enough._

_ Fearful whispers, faint traces of logs glanced at and replaced, all of it led to him uncovering a meeting of the powerful figureheads behind the dark scheme. A group too large for him to face down alone, with two high-ranking nobles of his father's Court and the second-most powerful admiral of the Yafutoman fleet and their bodyguards meeting in an old stronghold to the south along the Great Walls. _

_ He sent word to the _Dragon's Breath,_ a ship that his six month-long vendetta had cleared of any suspicion of wrongdoing. He called for the aid of his old crew in striking a blow and ending the madness of the opium smuggling ring once and for all._

_ Perhaps if he hadn't been so tired, he would have seen the trap for what it was. Perhaps if he'd been more alert, the _Dragon's Breath _would have been spared the surprise attack of cannonfire from hidden emplacements set up specifically to neutralize their covering cannonfire. Perhaps if he hadn't been so exhausted, that last stroke of Lord Gaozi's blade wouldn't have caught him and torn through him from shoulder nearly to navel as his own sword separated the miserable cur's head from his neck._

_ Perhaps if he had been the man that everyone thought he was, The Wind's Blade, Daigo Tokugawa could have escaped with the surviving crew from his old ship before reinforcements from the fleet, drawn in by the roaring fires that burned like signal flares in the dead of night, arrived to arrest everyone they could._

_ Being royalty spared him from a quick and painless death. _

_ It would not save him from the real danger._

* * *

_Tenkou Island_

_190 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The power of youth. Daigo often marveled at it, but it was on display and burning brightly after the four Westerners who had come with his sister had some decent meals and a full night and day to rest and recuperate. The morning spar he'd hoped for with Enrique had been enlightening in its own regard, for there was grace and elegance in the way that the exiled prince of the land of the Western invaders moved. A swordsman learned to read another in how they stood and how they moved, and from Enrique, Daigo got the strong impression that his strength did not lie in unstoppable force, but in directed blows - that Enrique could, if he put his mind to it, land a stab with that slender and tapered blade of his with the unusual guard any place he wished to. The followup spar between Enrique and Vyse, which took on more of a quality of training than an outright match, showed him the strength of the Blue Rogue as well. Ferocity and speed and daring, a crosspoint to Enrique's cooler-headed style, but with refinements that Daigo picked up on quickly. Enrique had been training Vyse in his way of swordfighting and combat.

Daigo wondered what the results of that blending of elegance and dual-sword dancing would be. His curiosity was brought to an end after their midday meal when Moegi, who had been disappointed last night and now looked furious today, pushed her dish away and announced, in very authoritative tones in the Western tongue, that since it was clear that Daigo had no intention of being useful, that they would be departing and he could get back to the business of being exiled.

The fire in his sister's red and puffy eyes startled him. Moegi had always been bright and intelligent and eager, but yesterday and today, she was nothing like the little girl he remembered. She had spoken of knowing his suffering, and then lambasted him with her own. She had accused him of cowardice, of hiding away because it was easier, or perhaps because he felt he had done enough, or because it was hopeless.

It was still hopeless, but at Moegi's words, the other four stood with equally darkening faces. Daigo's jaw dropped as he realized that each of them were following her lead.

"You - you can't." Daigo stammered.

"Can't I?" Moegi said crisply in Yafutoman, raising an eyebrow. "Our father is captured. The Blue Lands are in peril. Invaders walk the streets of the capital city and stroll through the palace. And you claim it is hopeless. Stay here then. I will not linger in hiding and leave my people to suffer. I was willing to suffer the indignity of marriage to _Muraji Kurowei._ You think me afraid to risk my life in battle? In this, I am _happy_ to take a page from the rules of Vyse and his friends, their guide of conduct. They never give up. Neither shall I."

With another uttered phrase in the Mid-Ocean language to her companions, Moegi walked out of the dining room, intent on leaving the estate and returning to the small, _small_ ship that they had come in on. Daigo found himself stumbling and scrambling to follow them.

"You have no plan!" Daigo pressed her, as Vyse stepped ahead of them and made for the thick wooden doors that would take them to the front courtyard.

"I am told by my new friends that they are quite good on...oh, what was the way they put it, 'thinking on the flying?' Something like that." She replied. Vyse pushed the massive doors open and they marched out into the stone courtyard that he and Enrique had sparred in that morning.

"You have no intelligence, no information! You don't know where to begin!"

"As Vyse has said, any good rebellion starts on the outside and works its way in."

"You have no ship!" He yelled at her as she kept on walking, arms in her sleeves with a devil may care attitude as they passed under the archway that served as the entrance to the once-temple that had become a home for exiles. Any further and they would be walking the long paths from one stone island to another which led to the small docks at the end of it, a distance from the actual mansion itself. A docks set up that way so that any exile who was brought here would suffer a long walk to arrive at their new home, a long walk to think and reflect and to suffer. Like he had.

"Then what did we arrive in, brother?" Moegi asked him curtly.

The power of youth burned in these four who had saved his sister and now warped her mind with their strange ideas. The power of youth, and the boldness without wisdom that youth held. The intent without planning that youth was famous for. They would leave here and they would be _killed_ and the desperate escape that had spared them from the coup would be for nothing. Moegi would leave and she would suffer and she didn't _care._ Or rather, she cared more about Yafutoma than her own welfare.

Like Daigo once had. He could not let it happen again, and he pushed ahead of them, racing, and flung his arms out to bar their path.

_"Three days!" _He begged them in Mid-Ocean tradespeak, throwing out the first number he could think of. Three days until the first of the Tenkou he'd had Jao and Mao race to contact late last night would be in a position to arrive. _"Please. Three days. I will found help! Please no leave!"_

The party of Moegi, Enrique, Vyse, Aika and Fina stopped and watched him for several long and, honestly, _agonizing_ seconds.

Moegi's steady and unbreaking face of grim determination melted into an easy smile. _"Well. Since you're offering, how can we refuse? Very well, brother. Three days. That will give us time to provision and plan, at least."_

Then she inclined her head slightly and spun around on her heels, stepping back into the courtyard of his home with such ease that Daigo blinked and was left gawking.

Enrique muttered something under his breath to Vyse and made a soft noise, and the Blue Rogue that bore a scar under his left eye snorted and started chuckling just a few notches below a full belly laugh as they spun and followed.

Daigo blinked and stared as the two Western girls, Aika and Fina watched Moegi walk away and then looked at one another with knowing expressions.

"What just happened?" Daigo said aloud, a question he uttered for nobody but himself. The two young women overheard him, and the Lady Fina giggled behind her hand before responding in Yafutoman.

"Moegi knew that her honorable older brother wouldst not dare let her leave unprepared for the trials ahead of us. It was just a matter of forcing you to admit it and prodding you to do something about it. In short, Daigo Tokugawa? _You have been played."_ As Daigo opened and closed his mouth, searching for a response to that, Aika busted out into a full out laugh and extended her arm out. Fina hooked her own through her companion's and the two women strolled back inside, fairly sauntering with their hips swaying back and forth in time with their good humor. They must have been very good friends indeed, for how closely they stood by each other as they walked along.

Well. Three days to convince them not to run off half-cocked. And his sister had known all along he would cave. He settled on an open smile.

By the Blue Moon, he was proud of her.

* * *

_He wasn't quite sure how he didn't end up dead. The healers who got to him in time were able to keep him alive and prevent him from suffering the dead blood sickness and the fever of the brain, but the pain medicine derived from the opium poppy left him woozy and only vaguely aware of his surroundings. When Daigo came to, he found himself back in the royal palace, in his rooms. But he was not free. Armed guards stood outside of his door, and he was not allowed to see his father. Or even his sister. The healing they had given him was incomplete, and the stitches along his shoulder and chest tugged at him as badly as the wound did. He would live, but he would bear the mark of the corrupt Lord Gaozi's sword for the rest of his days. It didn't take him long to realize that something was very wrong, that they were only waiting for him to not be on death's door before the next phase of it began. When his father's Advisory Council finally summoned him, he could stand, but still felt weak as a babe. The fire that had sustained him had guttered out, bled from the wound sewn up and packed tight with a wrap that smelled strongly of the most pungent medicinal herbs available._

_ Standing in his father's court, Daigo found himself in the unenviable position of the accused before the full Council, with his father seated on his throne, Minister Kangan Kurowei perched off of his right side with a hand gripping the top of the throne, and the full array of one dozen advisors, nobles all, kneeling along the carpet that led to the throne in tall hats with dark hoods that covered their faces and hid their identities. And there, pale as death off of her father's left, was his sister Moegi, dressed in mourning garb that confused him. Why did she mourn? For who?_

_ The answer came as soon as Minister Kurowei opened his mouth._

_ "Crown Prince Daigo of the Tokugawa bloodline. You stand accused of the crimes of murder of soldiers and high nobility, outlawry, destruction of property. In the name of His Illustrious Imperial Majesty Mikado, you shall be tried for these crimes."_

_ "Crimes." Daigo scoffed. "It should not be a crime for good men to fight against injustice. It should not be a crime to try and put an end to the illicit growing, smuggling, and dealing of opium never cleared for true medical use."_

_ Kangan stroked his long and slender mustache, his dark black eyes sizing up the prince. "If this were so, then why did you resign your commission? Why lurk in the shadows as the outlaw publicly known as the Wind's Blade when you could have investigated in the open?"_

_ "I did." Daigo snapped at him. "While serving aboard the _Dragon's Breath,_ myself and the crew of that brave ship uncovered the start of a smuggling ring. But it was not enough."_

_ "So you turned to outlawry. But you speak of some great conspiracy, Prince Daigo. Where is your evidence of this?"_

_ "Outlawry was all that was left to me!" Daigo protested. "We _had_ evidence. We had the evidence and we passed it on to the judicial administrators at Roshu and left in search of the next leg of the supply chain. We found their hidden smuggling base in flames and when we returned to Roshu, the evidence had been lost, the witnesses killed! There is a corruption at play within the military and nobility both, a corruption that is powerful and runs too deeply to be take on through normal means!"_

_ "Preposterous!" One member of the council shouted out behind his black hooded hat, keeping his face pointed directly ahead to the other side of the carpet and the other council members present. Tradition said that only the Minister and the royal family could look at the accused, and the accused could not look at any of them. Only his status as crown prince allowed Daigo the leeway to do otherwise. "The crown prince would accuse the nobility of deceit and treason to the jade throne? The crown prince has been taken by madness, my Majesty!"_

_ "Do not think to discredit me by claiming I am bereft of my senses, councilman." Daigo growled to the hidden man, who flinched in spite of the fact that his identity was preserved. "On my own, in secret as my only means of uncovering injustice, I found that high-ranking officers of the fleet had been working with nobility who either turned a blind eye or aided it outright. I know of villages whose farmers were captured and put to work on illegal opium fields. I know of ships like the _Blue Gale_ who were wholly complicit in the transferring of cargo. Sky-General Judou and Lords Hamabusa and Gaozi were caught red-handed in a supposedly abandoned fortress, and attacked us in earnest. We fought them with all we had and brought them to justice. I bear the scar of Lord Gaozi's sword, and that should be evidence enough for this council!" Daigo patted the bandage over his chest and ignored the flare of pain it brought._

_ Minister Kurowei shook his head slowly. "We are the beloved people of the Blue Moon. We are protected by the Divine Wind, and we are a people bound by our laws. Laws that you have broken."_

_ "The laws were meant to protect all, not a few clinging to misused and abused power!" Daigo roared at him, hissing as it tugged at his stitches and forced him into labored beathing. "When evil men can hide behind the laws, then the laws are __**useless**__ and must be cast off!"_

_ Kangan stood a little taller. "You hold yourself above the law, Daigo Tokugawa?" He uttered, doing him the dishonor of foregoing his title. "Not even a crown prince has such power! Only His Imperial Majesty may claim to be above the law as the chosen of the Divine Wind and the Mandate of Heaven!"_

_ Another of the hooded council spoke up then. "Your Imperial Majesty, the crown prince dishonors himself! He dishonors your dynasty! He accuses without evidence!"_

_ "He holds himself above the law! He acts outside of it!" Another declared loudly. _

_ "He cannot rule after your passing, Imperial Majesty! He will never receive the Mandate of Heaven!"_

_ "Cast him out! Revoke his status!"_

_ "Execute him!"_

_ "Exile him!"_

_ "Banish him!"_

_ "Deny him!"_

_ "Dethrone him!"_

_ Daigo, stunned by their cries, found his eyes bouncing between all of the hooded imperial advisors. Surely they were not all part of the Opium conspiracy! No, while some of them were playing a part, others must be reacting out of fear, or because they felt it right. He looked up to Minister Kurowei and froze when he saw the thin smile underneath the wiry Chief Advisor's mustache. It was a predatory smile. It was a triumphant smile. It was a smile that nobody but Daigo saw, and in seeing it, Daigo at last realized the truth._

_ Gaozi and Hamabusa and Judou had been powerful pieces of the conspiracy, and he had suspected they were not alone. He had been looking for the others of their status who were complicit with them, and never suspected that someone of even higher status might be pulling the strings. The corruption ran straight to the top, to the meager step below himself and his father, one step not quite so meager after all._

_ He opened his mouth to speak, and Kangan cut him off. "You would accuse everyone in this room of such dishonorable conduct to justify your wild and lawless crusade! No, the Mandate of Heaven clearly does not rest with you." Kangan turned to his father. "Your Imperial Highness, your council of advisors has spoken. We have given our opinions. It now comes to your judgment with the wisdom of the Blue Moon to decide. What is to be done in this terrible matter?"_

_ Daigo felt ill, and his blood roared in his ears as he looked at Kangan Kurowei, the spidery __**betrayer**__ in the middle of a web of deceit and illegal wealth and abused power. He looked to his sister, who sat with eyes full of tears that expressed emotions she could not otherwise. _

_ He looked to his father, a now elderly Mikado Tokugawa, and saw…_

_ Resignation. Disappointment. Daigo's heart collapsed._

_ "Daigo Tokugawa." The Emperor Mikado said in a low and grave voice, and the room fell silent. None dared breathe. "For refusing your father's orders, for acting outside of the law, for the murders you have done, I must pass judgment on you. I renounce your title as crown prince. But your blood is still royal, and must not be shed. I banish you to Exile Island in the northern reaches. There, you shall live out your days, never to return. When you are gone, nobody shall speak of you, and your name will be forbidden in these halls. This is the will and the sentence of the Emperor, and no man shall argue against it."_

_ Daigo slumped to his knees, staring at his father. Damnit, why couldn't he see?! Why didn't he realize…_

_ His father had never looked so _tired_ before, though. Or so devastated._

_ "Leave us." The Emperor said quietly, and as one, the hooded council members stood from their kneeling positions, bowed, and backed away to the side rooms. Kangan lingered a moment longer, but under Mikado's withering stare, he too finally bowed and departed._

_ Moegi stood and raced to him as soon as everyone was gone, sobbing softly against her brother's uninjured side. "I'm sorry." He heard himself saying, a hollow and hoarse message as he stroked her arm. "I'm sorry, Moegi. I tried."_

_ He looked away from her and up to his father who still hadn't moved from his throne. It was as if the man was frozen to it. Without anyone else present, the unshakable man seemed to deflate a little more. He'd only ever seen his father that sad when he had been a boy, after his mother had died. There was something more this time, though. There was guilt._

_ Daigo stared at him, afraid to voice it. He went for something more neutral but which still veiled his unspoken question. "I thought that an Emperor's first duty was to protect his people. Not the powerful."_

_ Mikado breathed out slowly and looked away. "Sometimes, my son...Even Emperors find themselves powerless. You would have been a good one, if you had been a little more patient."_

_ "You should have just let me die then." Daigo blurted out, heedless of how it made Moegi whimper._

_ "No." Mikado shook his head at that, looking back up with fire burning behind his eyes. "You are still my son. Do you think I could bear to lose you?"_

_ He should have been burning with rage, his blood should have been hot. Through the pain of his injury and the revelations of the spider at the heart of the Opium conspiracy who had outmaneuvered him, Daigo found nothing but cold stillness, a chill that left his blood frozen._

_ "You just did." Daigo said, and hugged his sister awkwardly one last time. "I'm sorry, little sister. Please. Try and remember to smile for me." He whispered to her. _

_ "Take me with you." She begged him, a girl of 11 whose world was falling apart because her brother was being sent away. "Please, let me come with you."_

_ She couldn't go. He couldn't stay. Daigo pressed a kiss to her forehead, found enough strength to smile at her, and pulled himself back up to his feet._

_ "Be good. Do better than I did." He said to her, and then turned and walked away from the throne, his back turned to it in blatant disregard of tradition and honor._

_ Mikado Tokugawa said nothing as he left. There was nothing left for either of them to say to each other._

* * *

_Tenkou Island_

_192 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Daigo had begged his sister and her Western friends to hold off on leaving for a grace period of three days. Following that day when he had 'been played' as Fina put it, they had ended up only needing two.

Fina and Aika had been providing healing sessions with him when he wasn't busy sparring with Enrique and Vyse, or spending some much-needed time with Moegi. They had a great deal to catch up on, and while he knew a few days wouldn't make up for his ten year absence from her life, he took it as a start. The other thing that he did with his time was to practice his Mid-Ocean language skills constantly. Moegi had spurred it on by telling her four companions to speak nothing but, which came as a relief to the men and to Aika, and prompted a knowing smile from Fina who was _at least_ bilingual. He doubted that he would be as casually fluent in it as Enrique and the 'Blue Rogues' who were with him, but he would make a good showing of it. At least Fina was complimenting him on speaking in complete sentences now.

The day that everything changed for the weary Blue Rogues who had come with his sister, the women were inside of the estate tending to the midday meal with Enrique assisting them. It gave Daigo a chance to spar against Vyse, both with their swords and their words.

_"So, how's the chest feeling?"_ Vyse asked him casually.

_"Better."_ Daigo hummed, because the further treatments that Aika and Fina had given him had left the scar intact as he wished, but done even more to take the aches away. He felt better than he had in years, and the missing strength that the scar tissue had taken away from his arm had even returned. He was using both his sword and his scabbard to match Vyse in his dual-sword style, and he used the scabbard to knock one blade, glimmering with a spell that blunted its sharp edge, off to the side. _"Are you and your companions rested?"_

_ "Rested and restless, Daigo." _Vyse said, bringing one sword across in a horizontal slice that Daigo backstepped to avoid. _"The reprieve has given us a chance to get some wind back in our sails, but we still have work to do."_

Daigo hummed and then let out a fierce cry, charging at Vyse with a flurry of strikes from scabbard and blunted katana alike. _"I said I would find help. I am finding it."_

They were both sweating, and Vyse pulled back, stowing his blades before reaching for a waterskin. He took a long drink and handed it over to Daigo before speaking again. _"Really? Because you've been spending all your time with us, and you haven't exactly gone anywhere. __**Can**__ you go anywhere, or is there something else to your exile I haven't seen yet? If there was a spell that could keep you bound here, I think Fina would know it. Or Moegi would."_

Daigo snorted and took a drink. After he swallowed it down and wiped his mouth, he grinned at the young and bold man. _"I learn to like it here. Compared to cramped bunk on a ship, this place is very good."_

Vyse hummed, taking the waterskin back and capping it. _"You're part of the Tenkou, aren't you? Jao and Mao, I remembered them. They're Tenkou. So if they were here, you're important to them."_

Daigo's heart skipped. So. Young as he might be, Vyse was nobody's fool. He had forgotten that countless times over the past few days, seeing only a young man that seemed barely any older than he himself had been before his exile. Yet this was a man blooded in a warrior's ways, who served as a captain among air pirates in his own skies that owed allegiance to none but his own sense of morality. This was a man whom others vowed allegiance to freely, even the prince of the land he and his kind had declared war on. Vyse was young and impetuous and perhaps relied a little too much on luck, if the stories that Moegi had shared of his exploits were more than fanciful lies, but he was intelligent.

_"This...this island is known to them." _Daigo told Vyse quietly. _"Jao and Mao were using Exile Island when I was dropped off and abandoned. After I fought them, we made agreement. I would allow the Tenkou to use this island as resting place, and they would bring things I did not have."_

Vyse hummed again. _"Seems to work for you. Decent of you to give them some space."_

_ "Yafutoma calls us Tenkou criminals." _Daigo told him.

_"And Valua calls us pirates. But we're Blue Rogues. Kingdoms don't always like people with power who aren't loyal to them. But we're loyal to each other, to freedom, and to happiness. And that's enough to fight an empire and save a kingdom."_ Vyse folded his arms and grinned at him, looking unshaken by the events of the past week. Grimmer, to be certain, there was tension in that smile that looked out of place, but he refused to bow to it.

Daigo shook his head, staring at the boy. _"Who are you? To speak so?"_

The grin Vyse wore gained its missing luster. _"I am Vyse, Captain of the Blue Rogues, son of Dyne who was the First Blue Rogue. I fight to save the world from Valua's aggression, so that people can laugh and fly in freedom. I am friends with two princes who live in exile, I am a legend that people fear or flock to. I am myself, and nothing more."_

Daigo sighed. _"You are prince yourself."_ He said, seeing all too clearly now what he had been missing. The utter charisma the man bled...Daigo almost felt guilty enough to throw himself into the abyss, if Vyse would but ask for it. Vyse laughed and rubbed at the back of his head, and Daigo pressed the point. _"Some royalty inherits. Others...made. Like first Tokugawa, my ancestor. He took the throne."_

_ "I don't want a throne."_ Vyse shrugged. _"Not sure I believe in them. But if they have to stand, I want the people who sit in them to be __**good people.**__ Like Enrique."_

Daigo laughed at that, a short and barking noise. _"You are kingmaker, then?"_ Vyse shrugged again, presumably unwilling to argue the point.

That was when movement beyond the great wooden arch of the courtyard drew their attention, and Vyse and Daigo walked outside of them to take in the view of the long and winding pathway down to the docks. Vyse gaped, and Daigo laughed at the man's incredulity.

_"You can be surprised after all." _Daigo said to him as they looked at three ships moored at the docks beside the small escape ship that Moegi and the Westerners had arrived in...and a sky swarming with half a dozen more.

_"You aren't just some low-level rest stop for them, are you? Your friends?"_

_"I am First. The First of the Tenkou."_ Daigo agreed, folding his arms. _"Not all here, though. More coming yet. I told __**all**__ to come."_

_"Moons bless it all. You have a fleet."_

_ "A small fleet. I hope it will be enough. We will still need a miracle."_

Vyse let out a triumphant shout and smacked Daigo in the side of the arm. _"Oh, trust me, prince. I've done more with less."_

Vyse's brown eyes glowed with the promise of a battle not yet fought, a revolution in the making. Daigo shivered to stand beside him.

Vyse was a kingmaker, indeed.

* * *

_ The journey to Exile Island was long. They used the worst ship in the fleet to take the once-prince to his new and permanent home, and a storm that seemed to follow them made it even more miserable, bouncing him around._

_ He was shoved off of the ship onto the age worn docks with crates and barrels of supplies, the clothes on his back, and one last mercy from the captain, his old katana and shortblade. To be used in self-defense, or as the corrupt Minister Kurowei likely wished, as the means of ending his own life. _

_ After climbing the long sets of bridges and islands up to Exile Island proper, Daigo was beginning to tire enough to consider giving the bastard the satisfaction. Or he had been up until he found a pair of young fighters just a year or two younger than himself lounging in the courtyard, who demanded his sword in exchange for his life. That was enough to stir the fighting spirit that had empowered the 'Wind's Blade' on his crusade once more, and despite their fierce style of unarmed combat, he bested them, falling to one knee in exhaustion after while they lay groaning from the bruises and lumps that his blade, used while still kept inside of its scabbard, had given to them._

_ "You are strong. Where did you find such strength?!" The first of them spoke between heavy gulps of air._

_ Daigo huffed, leaning his weight against his sword. "Fighting the opium smugglers. Not that it did any good. Who are you? And why are you here on Exile Island?"_

_ They called themselves Jao and Mao, twin brothers, and they resentfully informed him that this was _their_ home as much as it was his. That they were descended from the survivors of the order of monks who had called this island home long ago, and the stories of it being abandoned and then reclaimed had been wrong. The previous dynasty had attacked the monastery, seeing it and the monks who trained there as a threat to their power. The martial arts of unarmed combat had long been a part of basic Yafutoman military training, but Jao and Mao's skills were far greater. Theirs hadn't been meant for warmups or for a basis of experience into weapons training. Daigo saw it as another lie heaped onto the pile, and so he came clean to them about who he really was, and why he was exiled._

_ To his surprise, Jao and Mao were only more impressed, and begged to join him._

_ "Join me?" He said, confused. "I am in exile. If you wish to stay here, you are welcome to."_

_ "No, master." Mao shook his head and righted himself long enough to get into a kneeling position. "Our people were scattered to the winds, and yet still we remembered our ways and learned in secret. We never forgave those who came before the Tokugawas for their insult, but saw no need to reveal ourselves to the Tokugawas either. Not when the Old Clans were told to find new means of living. We know of you, Wind's Blade. The village you saved? We had friends there."_

_ "I wish I could have done more." Daigo told them regretfully. "I tried to stop it through lawful means. But the men behind it all were too powerful. They could delay our work. Burn evidence. Control and have men executed while in prison to silence them. I fought alone and killed three of their leaders, but missed the true threat. Minister Kangan Kurowei is at the heart of it, a poison killing Yafutoma from within."_

_ "Then let us help you." Jao declared, rising back up to his feet and handing Daigo a precious crystal of minor healing that sparkled green. "You are no longer alone. You know how to fight. You know how to lead. And the people of Yafutoma are tired of being taken advantage of. We are tired of being ruled by corrupt men who use the strength of the sword to justify their power."_

_ "Hence, why you wish to claim 1000 swords." Daigo smirked, patting his own. "You will not have mine."_

_ "Keep yours, master." Mao told him. "We take only the swords of our enemies."_

_ They wished revolution. They wished to take back their homeland. Daigo did not disagree with that, but it would take tempering. They needed to learn how to fight properly. Not just hand to hand and with weapons, but with ships, if they hoped to truly strike a blow against the corruption. Jao and Mao were right. They really did need a leader._

_ How gracious of Minister Kurowei to __**provide them with one.**_

_ "We need a name." Daigo said to them both. "A name for ourselves. Something that will inspire, but keep our identities hidden. I cannot be the Wind's Blade, I cannot be the Prince. If this is to work, then I must be, for whoever they send to check up on me, a harmless exile carrying out the sentence my father set on me." He made a face there. "And in all honesty, I feel like I could lose myself in a jug of rice wine if I let myself go."_

_ "Do not do that, master!" Jao exclaimed. "You must be the first of us!"_

_ Daigo blinked. Smiled. "Very well. Then I shall be the First."_

_ "The First of what, master?"_

_ Daigo considered his choices. There were many stories and myths of the time of the ancients, and among them were tales of creatures between man and bird, they who had been feared at first and who became protectors and guardians. The Tenkou._

_ They would be feared by their enemies as they became the guardians of the people of Yafutoma. His father had told him, often, that he must be a protector to his people._

_ Fate had put him here on this island, next to these young men. Fate had guided him to this. If he did not have the Mandate of Heaven…_

_ He felt a breeze roll by, and felt something else settle on his shoulders. The blessings of the Divine Wind._

_ "The First. Of the Tenkou."_

* * *

_Tenkou Island_

_196 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The First had called for them, and the ships kept coming. For nine years, they had been building themselves up. They had spies and agents in every village, telling them about the ships and the soldiers who were cruel, who created press gangs, who acted as lords instead of guardians. The Tenkou fleet and forces fought small skirmishes, hit and runs, claiming no territory. The Tenkou struck only at the transport ships identified as participating in the opium smuggling trade, at the military vessels known to be corrupt. They were a motley bunch, made up of grief-filled farmers and bitter prisoners, even soldiers and guards who had walked away when they could not stomach it. On the surface, Yafutoma remained placid and docile, its people obedient and subservient. To corral such a band into a cohesive force would have been a daunting undertaking. It was a challenge worthy of a prince, and led by their First and his most trusted lieutenants Jao and Mao aboard the Tenkou flagship, the _Yin-Yang,_ the guerilla campaign had held off the worst of Kangan's predations and atrocities.

The threat they faced now was so much worse, so much bigger. It had become a fight not for the soul of Yafutoma, but for Yafutoma's very survival and freedom. There was a frisson of anticipation in the air that every Tenkou member felt, from Taka with his bladed knuckle claws to Souta with his curved falchion. At the heart of that building pressure was Daigo and Moegi and Enrique and Vyse and Aika and Fina, six of them arranged around the large dining table subverted from its usual purpose to become a tactical map. The empire was in chaos, Daigo and the others learned with every new spy report that filtered in. The once quiet estate now buzzed with a steady hum of conversation and movement, even at night. Moegi had complained about it, too used to the quiet hallways of the royal palace. The Blue Rogues and Prince Enrique, however, weren't bothered an inch by it.

"Another report, First." One of the Tenkou messenger runners gasped out as he burst into the room. Daigo glanced up from the map with current Yafutoman fleet deployments and estimated troop strength, which now included additional markers for the mighty Valuan warships as well. Daigo took the message, unrolled it, and read it once before handing it over to Moegi to translate to their Western allies.

"The small skirmish force that Jao and Mao dispatched to draw the fleet off to the western provinces paid off additional dividends. Two Valuan ships were sighted with them." He said aloud for the benefit of the other Tenkou members in the room, and quickly made an adjustment on the map to reflect the deployment.

_"Is the _Delphinus_ still being locked down in the harbor?"_ Vyse asked.

Daigo shook his head. _"Spy reports say it is being manned by Yafutoman soldiers loyal to Kangan, with Valuan advisors. Muraji put in charge of it."_ He noted the open concern on their faces, and he smiled at them. _"Report from early this morning says your people still on board. Held belowdecks."_

_"The hold, most likely."_ Aika mused. _"Best place to stash close to 40 people and still keep them close."_

_ "Everything hinges on the _Delphinus." Vyse pointed it out again. _"If we can get back on board our ship, and take control of it, we can meet the Valuan force head-on."_

"One ship against eight - sixteen?" Daigo started and corrected himself, glancing at the map and the two Valuan ships which had been peeled away on a wild chase.

"You will find, Prince Daigo, that the _Delphinus_ is a ship without parallel." The Lady Fina answered him primly. "And it is not as though we will be fighting them alone. The Tenkou are with us, are they not?"

"We are, Lady Fina." Daigo answered her. "To the last man, the Tenkou are with us. This is what I made them for, to protect our homeland when nothing else would. But these metal ships of yours...The report I just received spoke of casualties as well. How ineffective our normal cannon shells were against their armor. Magic cannonballs and our homing rockets alone were effective."

Fina turned and translated for Vyse, and the Blue Rogue rubbed at his chin. _"You were always outgunned, though. Even when you were fighting against the Yafutomans that were corrupt, yes? So don't fight like we will. Fight like you have to. The Valuan ships can't go as high as yours can, trust me. Jao and Mao used that trick on us and we struggled to find a way around it."_

_ "Hm. Strike and fade. Um. What is word?"_

_ "Skirmish?"_

_ "Skirmish...yes. Skirmish tactic." _Daigo rolled his bare shoulder. "Probably our safest play anyways. So. We get you on board your ship, somehow, and try to serve as a distracting force while you hammer away at them?" He asked, guiding the remark to Fina. Another translation later, Vyse nodded.

_"What do we know of the city?"_ Enrique questioned him. _"How are they faring?"_

_ "There was some trouble in the city early. One of the Valuan ruling officers, he made trouble. The woman officer had him and the men with him dragged out of the city and punished. There are still Valuans there, but not so many. And they are hers."_

_"Vigoro got the shit kicked out of him?"_ Aika growled. _"Good."_

_ "Belleza is a hardliner and a firm believer in Galcian's agenda, but she is not needlessly cruel."_ Enrique nodded. _"The people would suffer less with men stationed there that served under her. But if Vigoro is not a part of the occupation, then he will be stationed as part of the Armada. And his ship is nothing to sneeze at. The _Draco_ is a terrifying beast of raw firepower. He mounted a gun from the Grand Fortress on the front of it, and had the whole forward compartment of his ship converted to hold the shell for it. A single shell. He bragged about it enough at Court. If he hits the _Delphinus_ with it, he could well cripple us. His more standard armaments would chew through the wooden vessels of the Tenkou in short order."_

Daigo nodded, watching the other Tenkou officers in the room as Moegi translated for the foreign prince and paying close attention to how many of them winced or flinched.

"It is a terrible risk." He said loudly, capturing the attention of them all. "But our homeland has been invaded, not by pirates like _Daqat_ who wished to steal and fly away, but by an empire that would strip us of everything of value. We can do no less than our best. We will fight as well as we can, and we will fight in our way."

While Moegi translated again, the doors opened and another messenger came racing in, wheezing slightly. "Stairs." He gasped, holding up another bound scroll. "A message from the palace spies, First."

Daigo took the note, read it, and frowned. "Hm." He looked to Moegi. _"The Maga Sphere is missing. Kangan claims that you took it. He has Valuans convinced this."_

Moegi frowned. _"We did not have time to take it."_

_ "Which means that he must have hidden it away." _Aika said. _"I can understand why he wouldn't want the Valuans getting their grubby mitts on it, but that won't make the Armada very happy. It's the primary reason they came at all."_

_"Moegi said that it was once used as the symbol of succession."_ Enrique pondered. _"Perhaps he means to use it to solidify his rule now that he has taken power for himself."_

Fina, looking suddenly pale, leaned forward against the table with a glazed, panicked look. _"I hope that's the only thing he plans on using it for." _She looked to Moegi and Daigo. "How well known are the stories of Bluheim, the Blue Gigas that flew the skies of the Blue Moon? Because he's _buried_ in the Mount Kazai crater lake under solidified lava flows right now."

Daigo blinked at the question. _"Gigas? There is a monster like the ones you have fought in our lands? Inside the sacred mountain?"_

Fina breathed out. _"So. There was no knowledge passed down of it?"_

Daigo shrugged, reverting to Yafutoman. "If there were, I had no knowledge of it."

"With any luck, nobody else in Yafutoma knows of Bluheim either." Fina murmured, still pale, but recovering. "But our luck regarding Gigas has been woefully lacking."

_"If I know the Valuans, they aren't going to let Muraji go flying off in my ship on his own." _Vyse said, changing the subject._ "They'll keep it protected inside their formations where it can cause the least amount of trouble."_

_"This will be harder for us then."_ Daigo murmured. _"By now, the Valuans must surely be aware of how Yafutoman ships can go to greater heights than their own. If we find your ship in battle, they will be looking to the skies, and can attack us before we could get close."_

Vyse frowned and drummed his fingers on the table. _"Your ships. They can go higher. Which means that your engines and atmospheric condensers have a greater range than Mid-Ocean technology does." _He leaned over the table a bit, facing Daigo. _"Are your ships capable of flying __**lower?"**_

Daigo blinked, thought about it, and nodded. _"I believe so, but we do not enjoy it. It is...different."_ Slightly warmer. A heavier feeling to the air. A darkness that the middle skies and the upper skies did not possess, and cloud cover often above. And the abyss below, a looming black void that beckoned and threatened. No Yafutoman ship dipped below the clouds if they could help it.

Vyse thought about that. _"Do your people talk of that capability?"_

_ "Not if we can help it." _Daigo admitted. Vyse smiled at his response.

_"Then I think we have our winning move."_

* * *

_Tenkou Island_

_197 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

The fleet of the Tenkou had assembled at last. Forty ships strong, but all of them wood as opposed to the metal of the invaders. From fishing vessels that had been converted to junks and transports where cannons had been hastily installed, the largest of them was the _Yin/Yang,_ which stood at only two-thirds the size of a 'Valuan Cruiser' as Enrique and the others told it. The surprise came from the six other ships that had joined them; six ships of the Yafutoman fleet who had refused to bend to Minister Kurowei's ascension to power. Six ships captained by loyal sons of the lands under the Blue Moon who had drifted about in singular unity in the midst of confusion who hadn't known where to go or what to do until they came across a Tenkou vessel...and instead of attacking it, had raised a flag of parley, vying for one desperate plan. They had sought to ask the Tenkou for their help in fighting back against the Western invaders.

They should have consulted with Daigo in his role as the First before bringing them, but their time was too precious, and Daigo would have made the same decision himself. The captains of the fleet had taken one look at Daigo, recognized him, and fallen to their knees. Exiled prince or no, he was Tokugawa. He hadn't even been able to ask it of them before they swore themselves to Daigo's cause.

Forty-six ships, with only 10 of them truly geared for open battle in the skies against the Valuan's forces around Yafutoma City and whatever Yafutoman vessels had been suborned to the cause. It was a desperate gamble with everything that fate and fortune had allowed Daigo to amass over the course of his exile. It was a gamble that they had to take, for the sake of Yafutoma and _the world of Arcadia_ as Vyse reminded him soberly.

Despite Daigo's queasiness, Vyse somehow kept smiling. _Refuge in audacity,_ he called it when questioned. Who would think that any of the Yafutomans would fight against Valua's superior firepower and armor? Nobody sane. Blue Rogues dared much, he was learning.

He had gathered as many captains to the courtyard of what had been meant to be his final resting place as could be squeezed in. It was meant to be a chance to speak to them all one last time before they set out for Yafutoma City, one last chance to rally and inspire the men and women of the Tenkou and the men of the _Loyalist Fleet_ with stirring words. That was when Vyse struck, stepping forward with Fina and Aika at his side while Moegi lingered back beside Prince Enrique. _Comfortably_ close to the yellow-haired man, in point of fact. Then Vyse started speaking, and Fina translated right after, focusing the eyes of every Yafutoman in the courtyard to the Westerners who were their _allies_ instead of invaders. Many of them stared and squinted at Vyse, and to the three-cornered black hat he wore with its red and blue-ribboned tips.

"Prince Daigo." Fina said with a smile, carrying Vyse's words to him in unerring and perfect Yafutoman. "We are proud to stand with you, and proud to see that so many of your people stand with you as well. Exiled or not, it is clear that you are a ruler among your people, for you look first to their welfare. Their love and admiration for you has never been so clear as it was these past days, and especially this morning. Your Tenkou are made of people who had to learn how to defend their homes and their families and their freedom, and your forbearance in how you made war against Kangan Kurowei's conspiracy speaks to your character. In all the ways that matter, the Tenkou act so closely to the Code of the Blue Rogues that you might as well be one. It is with that in mind that I, Captain Vyse of the Blue Rogues, son of Dyne who was the _first_ of the Blue Rogues, offer you the chance to become one."

Daigo inhaled as the courtyard gasped. Some made to argue, but Daigo held up a hand, silencing them.

"I could not swear allegiance to another power. My duty, my responsibility is to my people." He waited as Fina passed it on to Vyse, and waited further as the young man with his tousled mop of brown hair beneath the hat so similar to Daccat's own thought it over.

"Blue Rogues have no kingdom, Prince Daigo. We hold no lands of our own. We are citizens of the world, and are united by how we act and how we fight, and what we stand for. Centime sails the skies of Ixa'taka and now serves to help their people defend themselves. My father sails Mid-Ocean and the skies of the Silver Moon, where there was never a unified governing. And Clara of the Blue Rogues patrols the skies elsewhere, as she chases after her love. Being a Blue Rogue would not take you away from your people. Enrique is still the Prince of Valua, exiled as he is, and for all that he fights the corruption of his own homeland with us, his first care is to his people who suffer and struggle. Becoming a Blue Rogue does not mean you would walk away from your people. We never have, and we would not ask you to do so. You are our friend and our comrade, and today, I would ask you to become more. I would ask you to become our brother in arms."

Daigo swallowed at the reassurance. "Then...yes."

Fina swallowed. "Then kneel." Shaking a little, Daigo did so.

The courtyard went silent again, and Daigo watched as Vyse drew out his first sword and let the point rest against the cobblestones. There was no magic at play, no spell being cast, but there was ritual in this, and the air felt weighted from it. Vyse spoke softly, and Fina spoke loudly, his words in her voice while Aika gripped Vyse's free hand and Fina set an arm over the Blue Rogue's shoulder.

"Prince Daigo Tokugawa of the kingdom of Yafutoma kneels before this body, hereforth to declare himself as a Blue Rogue. Now he sails towards a new horizon and seeks the blessings of the Moons as he takes the Oath of the Blue Rogues. Are there any here who would speak against him receiving it?"

Daigo found his eyes looking around even as his neck stood locked into place. He wondered if any of his people would protest.

None did, and he looked to Vyse's companions, and to Moegi. Enrique's face was drawn into a tight smile of pride, and there were tears in Moegi's eyes as she clutched at the Valuan royal's hand and looked back at him. She was proud of him, and she was happy for him, and she was here.

"Hearing no voice of dissent, let us continue." Fina went on with solemn cadence. "Who would sponsor this man?"

Enrique stepped forward. _"I, Prince Enrique du Valua and a Blue Rogue under Captain Vyse, sponsor this man!"_ He declared loudly.

Aika raised her free hand. _"I, Aika of the Blue Rogues, sponsor this man!"_

Fina cleared her throat. "I, Fina of the Silvites, friend and ally to the Blue Rogues, sponsor this man."

Moegi took a trembling step forward, and the hush grew even louder in its silence. "I, Princess Moegi Tokugawa, sister of my beloved brother, sponsor him."

Jao and Mao let out a cry right after, pounding fists against their chests. "We, the servants of our master Prince Daigo, First of the Tenkou, sponsor this man!"

The rest of the Tenkou captains and the captains of the loyalist fleet who had joined them spoke almost in unison after that, a hot rush of noise that left Daigo's eyes burning with tears and a lump in his throat.

Vyse raised his sword and spoke, and Fina's translation followed. "And I, Vyse, Captain of the Blue Rogues, proudly sponsor this man, the first of the Yafutoman people to swear the oath. You are beloved by your people, and I have no doubt you will be a Blue Rogue without peer under the Blue Moon. Prince Daigo of Yafutoma, speak the Oath of the Blue Rogues and take your place among us."

He nodded to Fina, who let go of his shoulder and swept around him to kneel next to Prince Daigo. Her hand went to his arm, her smile a brilliant thing that made the lump in his throat even tighter.

"Repeat after me." She said to him, and took in a breath as Vyse spoke lines that Daigo heard and understood in part, but which Fina made clear. In slow fashion, Daigo did as he was bidden.

"Blue Rogues leave nobody behind. Blue Rogues never back down from a greater danger. Blue Rogues always help out those in need. Blue Rogues never give up. And Blue Rogues Fly Free."

_"BLUE ROGUES FLY FREE!"_ Aika and Enrique and Vyse and Fina all shouted that last part in Mid-Ocean tradespeak, a shout loud enough, powerful enough to wake the Divine Wind. Caught up in the moment, every Tenkou in the courtyard shouted the same right after in Yafutoman.

Vyse brought his sword down onto Daigo's shoulders, a gentle touch of the point on both of them, before drawing his 'cutlass' back away. His smile was one of satisfaction, and hesitance.

"So was the Code, as first written by my father, the first of the Blue Rogues. In my travels, I have reflected often on the Code, and have found it a good guide, but lacking. I still work on it, but I have two more lines I would have you speak, if you are willing."

Daigo nodded once. Vyse's words spoken through Fina went on.

"If you would be Free, then live to make others Free. If you would hold Power, then defend the Powerless." They were oaths that Daigo tumbled around inside of his mind, and found no fault with. Weren't they so very close to what his father had taught him a good ruler did anyways? He spoke them and felt lighter, looking between Enrique and Vyse and seeing in the both of them the same light of rulership that he possessed. A Prince of Yafutoma, a Prince of Valua, and a Prince of no kingdom but the open skies. The breeze kicked up around him, and Daigo shivered, feeling divinity and fate aligning again.

Vyse sheathed his blade and held out a hand to him. _"Stand, Daigo. Welcome to the Blue Rogues."_ Daigo took his hand and stood, and found himself with an armful of Moegi as she raced to him and embraced him with happy sobs. So different from the tears she had shed in his arms when she and her Western friends first arrived. The courtyard erupted in deafening noise. Enrique was right behind her, extending a hand to him in congratulations. Daigo laughed and clasped his arm.

When they all finally let him go, Daigo pulled out his sword and held it aloft, pulling himself together and bursting with pride. Pride in his people. Pride in the Blue Rogues who had come to help save his homeland. Pride in his sister, who had never forgotten him and who was so much stronger than anyone had ever conceived.

"Today, we are all united. Tenkou, Blue Rogues, soldiers of the fleet, none of that matters! We make for Yafutoma City where the invaders from the West sit and wait for their doom. You all know the plan, you all know what must be done. Their ships are stronger than ours, more durable, but they lack the resolve that burns in our hearts! Today, I declare you all defenders of Yafutoma! Today, _WE_ are the agents of the Divine Wind! Now go! Get to your ships, we sail to battle!"

The captains of his makeshift fleet bellowed and raced for the archway and the long path down to the docks. In three days' time, they would arrive outside of Yafutoma City. In three days, a reckoning would come.

Daigo looked to his sister and to the Westerners. _"Moegi. I have better clothes for what will come in my ship. Vyse and company? You can't expect to fight in that small ship you came in. You're coming with me. I'll get you on board your ship."_

_"We are with you, Prince Daigo." _Vyse reassured him, and Enrique nodded as well while Moegi and Fina and Aika grinned also.

Prince Daigo Tokugawa was returning home, still disgraced but unable to do any less. He would not be alone. He was the Wind's Blade. He was First of the Tenkou. He was a Blue Rogue.

He would never be alone again.


	35. A Divine Wind

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

**Thirty-Five: A Divine Wind**

* * *

_Yafutoman Airspace_

_Lower Sky_

_200 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

Aika liked to think of herself as a _do-er,_ in that she preferred _doing_ things rather than sitting around and talking about them. Fina was by far more sedate, and Vyse for all of his cheerful energy, could turn it on and off as the situation or his mood required. Today of all days, she was glad that she was a do-er.

Months and years from now, people in Yafutoma were going to be asking each other, _where were you when the Tenkou drove out the invaders?_ Aika would have an answer ready and waiting.

_On board the Yin Yang with Prince Daigo, Princess Moegi, Prince Enrique, and my two lovers, getting ready to kick in the teeth of every last Valuan who crossed us._

The Lower Sky was...different. All of the Yafutomans were inside of the ship, not wanting to stand outside, but Aika braved the elements. She had only ever felt the gentle warmth or the storm-chilled winds of the Central Sky, and the thin atmosphere of the Upper while they had stayed on Tenkou Island. Here was something entirely different, and unsettling. She could look up and see cloud tops which would, at any other time, be a _cloud bottom._ Beyond that hazy gray veil were blue, sunny skies that she caught only faint glimpses of. She breathed in the thick, moist air and stared over the side of the vessel, looking down into even thicker clouds and a constant darkness that loomed and beckoned. It made her shiver, even though the air here was warmer than anywhere else but the Nasrian desert. Warmer and wetter. Like Ixa'taka really, but...with so much more darkness.

She stared down into the Abyss for a few more seconds, finally seeing for herself that there was truth to the old curses and oaths people used when they so blandly told people to go to the abyss. Aika found herself thinking about all the ships over the hundreds of years of skyfaring that had been lost to the depths.

She shuddered and took one step back from the rail, then another and then five more, and forced her eyes skyward. And then yelped and jumped a little when she felt arms wrap around her.

Vyse's arms. Once she realized that, she calmed down and sank against him.

"You're all right." Vyse told her gently. "It's okay. You're all right."

She exhaled in jittery bursts, and didn't resist when Vyse started to kneel, guiding her to sit down on the deck. Her knees felt like jelly. She should have felt embarrassed, a seasoned sailor like herself going weak-kneed. "I think I get why the Yafutomans don't like to fly down here." Aika said softly.

"You looked down for too long, didn't you?" Vyse asked her knowingly. Aika shrugged, leaning back against him when he uncurled his legs and brought them around her hips. "Daigo told us not to do that."

"Yeah. I got curious." He huffed a bit and pulled her back, leaning her head against his shoulder so he could lean his head on top of hers. "Where's Fina?"

"What, suddenly I'm not good enough for you by myself?" He teased her, and she rolled her eyes. She knew what he sounded like when his feelings were actually hurt. "She's right here. But I saw you swooning, and…"

"You do love being the hero." She smiled, feeling his arms wrap around her belly and sighing in satisfaction.

"I love being _your_ hero." He chuckled, and Fina came into view, kneeling beside them. "And Fina's. But she likes being your hero too. Right, love?"

The blonde-haired Silvite brushed her veil and her hair back as she smiled at Aika, leaning in and giving Aika a long, soft kiss that made her eyes flutter shut. "You okay, baby?" Fina asked after, a gentle voice in the lower, slower, deeper sounding wind than normal that was present in the Lower Sky.

Moons, she loved these two. "I'll be better once we're out of these clouds and back on our own ship." She confessed to them.

"Today." Vyse promised her. She reached up with one hand to run it through his messy hair, and bumped into the captain's hat that he'd taken during their escape from Yafutoma. "A couple of hours. Word's filtered back from the scout ship that Daigo had sent on ahead. We got the flag signal from the ships flying above us five minutes ago."

Aika closed her eyes, thinking about their friends and the crew who were, so far as they knew, still being kept prisoner belowdecks on the _Delphinus._ Not executed or transferred elsewhere. Likely so they could be interrogated.

"There's a lot that can still go wrong with this plan." Aika reasoned.

"Things usually can go wrong. But we've prepared ourselves the best that we can." Fina replied, confident and her blue eyes sparkling with purpose. "Just because the odds are against us, it doesn't mean we stop. You two showed me that. You taught me that."

"Whatever happens, Aika, we're with you, and we love you, and I wouldn't change a damn thing." Vyse said, a fire in his voice right before he shifted her head off of him and turned her around slightly so that he could pull her into a heated kiss, his tongue running over her teeth and teasing her own. Aika loved his kisses, he could be hard and possessive in a way that Fina never was. With her mouth, anyways.

When he pulled back, Aika felt even warmer than before and was panting for air. And that was before Fina pressed in and hugged her, smashing their chests together and licking at her ear while her hands traced the curve of her back, and Vyse's hand met Fina's just above the curve of her ass. Aika whimpered, and cursed the fact that they had been driven off of their ship, away from their home and all the things that they'd kept there.

"The first thing I want after this is done is my coffee." Fina growled. "And the second is my _fucking_ birth control pills."

Aika laughed at the frankness in her lover's words, and Fina pulled back and smiled, having succeeded in the goal of getting Aika's mind off of where they were and what _might_ happen.

"Baby?" Aika said to Fina, the fire in her belly spreading out through her body with the promise of violence and sex too intertwined for her to tell the difference. "We're going to kick Valua's teeth in today. You know that, right?" Fina's gleaming gaze answered her better than her words ever could. Aika felt Vyse go still around her, and it was enough to make her blink enough that Fina realized something was wrong. Aika tightened her hand in Vyse's hair while Fina looked at him.

"Vyse?"

"I'm okay."

"If you were okay, Vyse, you would be feeling me up right now instead of acting like a statue." Aika grumbled. It got a shallow laugh out of him and a smile from Fina, but Aika pressed on. "What's bothering you? No secrets, remember? I can't fix what you don't tell me about."

"I know." Vyse sighed. "I know. You try to fix everything. You've always been good at fixing things. Even us." He kissed the top of her head and pulled her tighter against him. "I'm scared." Aika looked to Fina again, and the Silvite looked as shocked as Aika felt. It all poured out of Vyse after that. "I know I'm the captain, and I'm supposed to look like nothing ever bothers me. We have a good plan, we're relying on my favorite tactic of _refuge in audacity._ But I'm still scared. I'm scared that we'll lose. I'm scared that our friends are already dead. I'm scared that you two will die and leave me alone, or that I'll die and leave you alone without me."

"It's not going to happen." Fina promised him, and she reached for his hand that was pressed on Aika's stomach. Aika let go of Vyse's head and joined her hand with theirs, and closed her eyes.

"It could, though."

"If you keep thinking about it, you're going to end up _making_ it happen." Fina told him sharply. "Neither of you are dying. I won't allow it. I'd drag your souls out of the abyss before your bodies ever got cold." That got a longer and more relieved laugh out of Vyse, though he still didn't seem entirely convinced.

"And if you died, Fina?" Vyse asked her.

She responded by conjuring up Cupil from his armband form, and made a slight gesture. The creature coughed out a small spell crystal that gleamed with brilliant silver light. She took it and set it in his hand.

"Is that…" Aika whispered reverently.

"A Riselem Crystal." Fina confirmed. "I made it before we got into Yafutoma." Her blue eyes were a little watery when she leaned in to kiss Aika again, swift and fierce, and then she gave Vyse one that lasted several seconds longer with her hands pressed against the sides of his head. When they separated, flushed and gasping, Fina bent her head down and laid her cheek on Aika's head.

"If I die? You use that. You bring me back." The Silvite forced out, her voice shaky. "I'll _run_ back to your arms." Their arms, not just Vyse's, Aika realized.

"I love you two." Vyse blurted out. "I don't tell you that enough. Moons knows I should. It's everything. It's how you both look at me, at each other. It's how we kiss, how we hold each other at night. How we work, how I know I can follow your lead and trust you as much as you trust me. I love you for who you make me, and for the life I get to live with both of you in my arms."

Aika was a do-er, not a thinker. She stood up long enough to turn herself around and kneel on her legs Yafutoman style before nestling her head under his chin again and pulling in Fina to her side so his arms could wrap around the both of them. She knew how she made him feel, because she felt the same every time he looked at her when nobody else was watching, when Fina let the demure and rehearsed formal mien slip away to reveal the brilliant, beautiful woman she was underneath it shine through.

"No matter what happens, we're together." Fina resolved, slipping her hand into Aika's and interlacing their fingers. Fina squeezed her hand until their grip was tight, until it said everything that her words didn't. _I love you so much._

Aika breathed and squeezed her hand back. "Always." _There aren't the words for how you make me feel._

* * *

_Midday_

Vyse had a plan. No, really. He did. It was a terrific plan. Some captains that fancied themselves tacticians would try to account for every variable and make up some kind of a twelve-step approach that would fall apart at the first hiccup. Vyse, on the other hand, had been raised on the stories of his father's exploits, not knowing that the adventures of Dyne the Blue Storm were not something to be followed verbatim, but were meant to be a guide of what _not_ to do. Aika had laughed herself nearly sick when they'd gone home after the second time that they had blown out of the Grand Fortress and Dyne had confessed that at least half of the grand stunts he'd pulled in his early days before the crew of the _Albatross_ had found their rhythm were done by the seat of their pants. Vyse had heard the stories and admired them, but he had _trained_ under his father in a time when Dyne had put the kind of insanity behind him that should have normally gotten everyone killed. When Aika and Vyse had been allowed to join up with the rest of the crew as aspiring Blue Rogues in training, Dyne had rules and standards that he meticulously followed, ones geared towards minimizing risk and keeping clear of mayhem. He pounded that into Vyse's head hard, impressing on his son the responsibilities of being a leader, of staying calm and collected, and about coming up with sensible plans and tactics. Which Vyse did.

Well. Aside from that time that he had Aika chuck out that Pyri spell crystal from the train when they rescued Fina so Drachma knew _where to aim the cannons,_ or the time that he refused to use the Moonstone Cannon when facing down the 2nd Fleet and then turned around and faked an engine malfunction so they could fire every last loaded shell and torpedo, or the time that…

On second thought, Aika took it back. Vyse clearly hadn't taken his father's lessons all that much to heart after all. His favorite stunt, after all, was _refuge in audacity,_ which was a more polite way of saying _'I've got an idea that's so crazy that it HAS to work!'_ Sure, he knew when to tone it down and when to get serious, but damn if the man she loved still had a streak of outright chaos in him that refused to die. Still. Times like this, the _conservative_ approach wasn't that useful at all. The odds of this plan working were still low, but they weren't entirely geared towards suicide.

Vyse's plan was simplicity. The heavier ships of the Tenkou, minus Daigo's flagship that they were currently on, would fly with the ships of the Yafutoman Navy that had refused to kowtow to Minister Kurowei's foreigner-supported coup. The smaller ships were stationed up higher, and would be unloading their torpedoes and spell-laced cannonballs from above, and out of range of the Valuan's main guns. It was all a feint, in the beginning at least. The Tenkou knew that they couldn't take the Valuans in a standard ship to ship slugfest. No, the plan was to make Valua _think_ that they were trying to do that, to set them at ease and to make them relax, while dealing with attacks from higher altitudes so that they would feel secure in thinking that they'd accounted for the tricks their enemies were using. Secure enough to loosen their cordon.

Secure enough to let the _Delphinus_ come out to play.

The sounds of battle were fierce as the _Yin Yang_ drifted just within the clouds separating the Central Sky from the Lower. A lookout perched high in the rigging was just above the layer, which would have been an unusual feeling for the man, knowing that his ship was below him but feeling like he was flying freely.

The lookout shouted as another two shells were fired from the battle above. He rattled off a litany of words in Yafutoman, and Aika looked to Moegi and Fina, who stood side by side on the deck frozen and listening. The backs of their hands brushed up against each other unconsciously, a sign of just how nervous they were. Moegi had never been in a battle, and for Fina, this would be her first boarding action. The two regal women both had reason to be on edge.

"Your ship has been sighted." Moegi said, glancing to Vyse. "But the Tenkou on the frontlines are taking heavy damage." Daigo stepped out of the wheelhouse on the other part of the double-hulled vessel and shouted out what was undoubtedly an order, and a roar answered him back.

"We sail to war." Fina translated softly. "Daigo has us turning to line us up beside the _Delphinus. _Once we pull up beside her, our time to board her will be limited."

"I've done more with less." Vyse said, and Aika almost rolled her eyes. Yes, he had. It didn't mean he _should._

The _Yin Yang_ broke through the clouds at last as it ascended, and everyone quickly hooked their carabiners to the mounts dotted along the rails. Given the steepness of the ship's ascent, it was all too necessary, for Moegi let out a yelp as her feet gave way underneath her. She slipped back as the line snapped taut and brought her into Enrique's arms, and he quickly held her around the waist with one while gripping his own line tighter as he dug his boots into the deck.

"Easy. I've got you." Enrique reassured the princess of Yafutoma, whose red face Aika suspected wasn't entirely due to her close call. "Not quite the steady ascent most ships usually take!" He shouted at Vyse after.

Aika's captain and lover laughed loudly, his black hat somehow stubbornly staying on through everything. "Now I know why everything down in the hold was strapped down to the walls along with the floors!" He whooped, leaning forward almost to the point of laying down on the sloped deck but still as steady on his feet as Aika was. "Okay, everyone! Remember the plan?"

Or the lack of one. Vyse's plan was simple and allowed for changes or screwups. Aika and Enrique would head belowdecks once they were aboard to liberate their imprisoned crew, while Vyse and Fina would make for the bridge to secure the helm. There had been one slight modification to the plan that Daigo had insisted on. Moegi was coming with them, because it was safer for her to be aboard the _Delphinus_ than on the _Yin Yang_. Vyse got a handful of sharp head nods from them all, and Enrique followed it up by calling out his name.

"Vyse." The Blue Rogue looked to the exiled prince, noting the grim look on his face. "You will protect Moegi with your life." Moegi made a little noise and looked at Enrique in wonder.

"I already promised Daigo she would be safe." Vyse told him.

"This vow you make to me. Not him." Enrique clarified. Aika stared at the blond-haired prince as he tightened his beret on his head, and then cracked a grin.

"Relax, 'Rique. My best girl's going with Vyse too. Your girlfriend's gonna be just fine."

Enrique blushed at the assertion while Moegi blinked in confusion, stumbling over the unfamiliar term. Vyse chuckled once, then let solemnity slip back onto his face.

"On my honor as a Blue Rogue, Enrique. I will protect Princess Moegi Tokugawa with my life." Fina cleared her throat loudly, and Vyse let his face slip back into a grin as he looked to the Silvite. "Well. _We_ will."

"Thank you." Enrique replied, coughing once, and then the _Delphinus_ came into view, commanding their attention. It had been firing only sporadically, whatever crew they had aboard her was unfamiliar with its fire control and the loading mechanisms. A point in the favor of the Tenkou and the Blue Rogues, because the _Delphinus_ was the most dangerous ship on the battlefield. And it had taken some hits already. Aika hissed as she saw the damage of cratered armor plating and scorched metal, and wondered for a moment why the ship hadn't been firing the Moonstone Cannon. If the Valuans or Muraji, supposedly stationed up on the bridge had been wanting to make a statement, there would have been no quicker way to do it.

The _Yin Yang_ tore up alongside the still clueless _Delphinus_ and pulled into a matching flight pattern.

"Everyone off that's getting off!" Vyse bellowed, and they all unclipped their carabiners from the rail. Vyse pulled Fina up beside him with one arm as the ship went rail to rail, and before the Silvite could do more than squeak in surprise, he swept her up in a bridal carry. "You ready for this, Fina?"

Blushing but giddy and caught up in the moment, Fina raised her arms and threw them over his shoulders. "Always, beloved." She kissed him, then looked over to Aika and bit her lip. "For good luck?"

Well. Who could say no to that face? Aika sauntered up to Vyse and Fina, then gave Fina a quick peck that warmed her heart before she pulled back. "Let's save the world, babe." Fina giggled, and there was a moment where Aika thought she heard Moegi make a squeaking noise. When she looked over to the Yafutoman royal, the dark-haired dearling's eyes were wide and she was looking away and blushing. Guess she wasn't used to seeing girls kissing each other. Enrique just rolled his eyes, not quite immune to the way that they fawned over each other but accepting of it and steadily growing accustomed to it.

"You'll be careful, won't you?" Vyse asked Aika.

"As careful as you are, love." Aika replied.

"That is _hardly_ encouraging." Vyse muttered, and then with a lunge, two steps and a leap, he crossed the gap from the _Yin Yang _to the _Delphinus_ with Fina barely jostled at all. Enrique hesitated, and Aika snorted and smacked him on the back, forcing him forward into an awkward jump that he hadn't had the time to prepare for, and which forced him into a faceplant onto the deck of their hijacked ship. As he groaned and picked himself up, Aika covered her mouth for a moment, then she took Moegi's hand.

"You are all _crazy."_ Moegi observed in a faint voice.

"Yup. Blue Rogues." Aika flashed her a grin and made the jump from rail to rail, tugging Moegi behind her. They hit the deck of the _Delphinus_ and Aika took in a breath, starting to feel like things were turning back to normal at last. Even when a trio of Yafutoman soldiers came charging out through the hatch that connected the deck to the ship's interior. They yelled something in Yafutoman which had to be some variant of 'surrender now you pirate dogs!' that the Valuans always loved to throw out at them when they got talkative. Aika ignored their words and paid attention to the points of their spears as they fell short of the team and kept them brandished and pointed at them. Moegi took a step forward and enunciated clear words back at them, probably an order to stand down. The trio looked nervously at each other with their woven plate armor jostling under them, then their faces hardened.

"Aika?" Moegi said, less a question than a command. Aika stepped forward and let her aura flare to life, burning with power.

"Everyone else, stay back." She called out, and raced at the trio. They reacted in surprise, not expecting to have a single warrior try to take on all three of them. And had Aika been meaning to duel them with her boomerang it would have been suicidal. But she had other plans, an opportunity to try out a new move that she'd been skating on the edges of for weeks.

_Lambda Burst._

She hit the center of their formation and unleashed her power, and it exploded out from her in an enormous blast wave of heat and concussive force that knocked them off their feet, burned them alive, and sent them flying. One even flew clean off the side of the ship.

"Woah." Vyse said, and Aika sent him a wink.

"Nice of them to leave the door wide open for us. Get to the bridge. Enrique? You're with me."

They took off like lightning, and with Enrique quickly closing the distance, Aika made for the stairs that would take them belowdecks. They had a crew to save and a ship to take back.

* * *

There were Valuans and Yafutomans on board, but a boarding action was not something that any of them had thought to be a possibility. The force guarding the prisoners were armored up, but were at reduced numbers. With the hold locked up and sealed off during the engagement, they hadn't needed more than half a dozen men, a mixed force of Kangan loyalists and Valuan grunts. Between Aika's rampaging firepower and Enrique's swift swordplay, they dispatched the guard force with only a little less ease than they had the few guards posted in the corridors. Which is to say they actually had to fight them instead of blowing right through them.

Enrique yanked the door's handle hard and tugged the hatch away from the hold's bulkhead, and when Aika looked inside, she yelped and had to jump out of the way when a loose board came flying for her face. "DAMN!" She cried out, when the board hit her between the shoulders instead, and before the blinding pain set in, she saw that it had been Khazim who'd wielded it.

The board hit the floor with a clatter and the Nasrian gunner let out a foul curse while the other members of the crew that had been imprisoned inside the hold let out gasps and cries and raced to her side.

"Shit, that hurts." Aika grunted as strong hands and strong arms pulled her up. A set of warmer hands fell on her next, setting on her shoulder and her back before the warmth of a healing spell flowed into her.

"If you can wiggle your fingers and toes, then you're fine, dear." Dr. Argas told her patiently. Aika shook the stars out of her eyes and shoved herself up to her feet, then flipped Khazim a middle finger.

"It's a good thing you didn't take my head off with that swing, big guy." Aika said, and Khazim laughed nervously, stepping back and holding up his hands. Aika kept the glare on him for another second, then smirked and punched him in the chest. "Too bad I wasn't Valuan, right?" Nervous chuckles answered her, and she looked over them all. Tired. A little hungry and skinnier, but not mistreated. Not beaten or tortured. And some of them were missing. "Okay, where's Robinson and Polly?"

"Up in the galley, boss." Lapen answered, pushing past the others and smiling at her. He raised his fist up, and Aika smashed her forearm against his. "They figured if Polly was doing the cooking, we might eat it. Damn, it's good to see you. This is a jailbreak then?"

"A jailbreak with a side of taking the ship back and turning the tide of this battle." Enrique answered. "We found some help, but without us they're getting the shit kicked out of them. Right now, the son of the corrupt Yafutoman minister who _sold out his country_ to the Armada is up on the bridge, and Vyse and Fina and the princess of these lands are going to retake control. But that's not going to do us any good if we all don't take back this ship completely and man our stations for combat. Now all of you answer me, and don't lie; are you in a fit state to retake the _Delphinus?"_

"AYE!" A roar answered him from everyone, even little Marco. Aika barked out orders for Khazim and the gunners and her ship's engineers to follow her, and everyone else went with Enrique as the two squads diverged. The weapons of the dead and dying Valuans and traitorous Yafutomans were scooped up and repurposed, and with the crew running flat out on adrenaline, they made for their objectives. Most of them, anyways.

"Lawrence!" Lapen shouted, stopping the sailor dressed in purple who was bringing up the rear while brandishing a stolen Valuan cutlass. The brown-haired mercenary helmsman and fighter looked back over his shoulder to Lapen, who grimaced and ran a hand through his wild blond hair. "Don't go fuckin' dying, you hear me? You take this ship back and you help the Cap'n outfly all these Valuan sonsabitches!"

Lawrence was known among the crew for his cold looks and his aloof attitude, even if he had finally conceded the bet and surrendered the other half of his ridiculous contract fee to Vyse after the Southern Ocean crossing. But when he looked back to Lapen, for a moment Aika could have sworn that the man actually smiled. "It's what I'm paid for." He said, and then he was jogging off after Enrique and the others.

"Huh." Hans hummed, looking at his foster brother before waggling his eyebrows. "So what was _that_ all about?"

"Ah, shut up." Lapen snorted, giving his younger sibling a rough shove before he looked to Aika. "We going or not, boss?"

"We're going." Aika said, gripping the handle on her boomerang a little tighter. She led her squad forward through the belly of the ship. They had to secure the heart of the beast and all of its weapons.

* * *

There were no Yafutomans in engineering, just a half crew of very competent Valuan engineers who took one look at the murder squad heading their way and quickly threw their hands up in surrender after their officer scrambled to fire off his single shot pistol and got gutted for it. They got to work tying up the smart ones, one of whom nervously asked what sort of quarter they could expect to be given.

"That's up to the Yafutomans." Aika told the man, who sputtered and went pale. "Or their prince, anyways. He's the one risking his neck to save his kingdom."

"A prince? Since when did Yafutoma have a prince?!" Another engineer exclaimed. "I thought there was just the princess!"

"Gee, Valua was working off of faulty intelligence. How about that?" Lapen snarked. He finished hog-tying the hands and feet of the last Valuan left alive and stepped back. "All right, boss, we're secure here."

"Good." Aika turned to Khazim. "Get to fire control, mop up the stragglers and get ready to make Valua hurt a little more."

The bare and barrel-chested dark-skinned Nasrian laughed loudly and hoisted his cutlass. "As you command, Daughter of the Red Moon! Come, men! There's _blood_ to be spilled!"

Hans groaned as the Nasrian gunners took off running, looking between Aika and Lapen. "Uh, Miss Aika? Brother? Are they _always_ that melodramatic?"

"Only when it counts." Aika smirked.

"Even if you retake this ship, you'll never defeat the Armada!" One engineer who apparently hadn't recovered all of his common sense cried out. "The main gun on this ship isn't operational!"

"Wait, what?" Aika whirled about, quickly working her way up to a full-blown panic. No Moonstone Cannon? They'd be cut to ribbons without it!

"Ah, yeah." Lapen scratched at the back of his head. "About that." He looked over to Hans and the more elderly engineers who'd joined up from Esperanza. "Hans! Get our boys on the reactor readouts and make sure that the driveshafts are lubricated. I'll be back in a few minutes to help, but I've got something to take care of first!"

"On it, big brother!" Hans gave Lapen a salute with his oversized wrench and then rushed to get to work, then Lapen motioned to Aika and they started running forward through the bowels of the ship, doing their best to ignore the wailing alarms that hadn't yet been silenced.

"Okay, so what did you mean - when you said _'about that'_ Lapen?" Aika huffed, timing herself between puffs of breath as they stayed in a near flat-out run.

"When the Valuans - came aboard, they - swarmed us before we - could react." Lapen responded, not quite as physically fit as Aika. "I was down - working here. You had those - modifications."

"Fina's, right." Aika quickly agreed. "The refinements - to the focusing array. And the - other fixes."

"So when the Valuans - rushed in, I - disabled the cannon. And lied." Lapen finished with a cackle. "Got that bitch admiral - thinking that Fina was - the only one who - could make it operational again."

They were forced to stop at a closed hatch that separated the forward compartment of the lower bow to the massive engineering spaces along the mid and rear sections of the ship. Lapen quickly worked the lever lock and pulled it open, and Aika stepped past the bulkhead to look at the massive assembly rigged up on a gyroscopically balanced mount, all too necessary for the precision mechanisms that had to work perfectly with minimal vibrations in flight and combat situations. Fina had very little good to say about the engineering and the 'limited principles of particle physics' that went into the Moonstone Cannon's creation, but she'd wholeheartedly approved of the setup that kept the gun stabilized and dampened the vibrations around it.

"So. I got Admiral Belleza to believe that Fina'd taken it offline for maintenance, and that _none of us_ knew how to put it back to rights."

"Half a lie, then."

"The best lies have a drop of truth in 'em, boss." Lapen said. He walked past her and went up to the massive power converter that ran from the ship's enormous moonstone reservoir to the cannon's capacitors and threw open the covering. "Main power still offline?" He asked, pausing before diving further into the guts of the weapon.

Aika went over to the box and checked the relays, quickly flipping a single toggle to the OFF position which had escaped the notice of the Valuans before. "Now it is."

"Good." Lapen grinned, reaching inside and squirming his arm around past bundles of wires and pipes and moonstone latticework. "Safety first and all." He adjusted something, grunted once in approval, and then pulled his hand back out. "There. Now flip it all back on." He said, putting the cover back into place. Aika did so with gusto, and they were rewarded by the sound of the Moonstone Cannon coming back to life after days of being offline.

Lapen grinned madly. "They caught me pulling some wires elsewhere, but they all missed this. Days the Valuans spent digging around the Moonstone Cannon trying to figure out what Fina had done to knock it offline for her 'improvements.' Not a one of them ever bothered to check the tertiary emergency recessed breaker inside the power converter."

Aika busted out laughing. Of course they wouldn't, it hadn't been a part of the original construction. It had been something that Fina had insisted on them installing, one last interrupt between the focusing array and the moonstone reservoir that would shut the cannon down in the event of a catastrophic overload. One additional safety measure for an unforeseen danger that Valua hadn't thought of, but which Fina had known about and anticipated.

"It only took me five seconds to screw them over and keep 'em from using our best weapon against anyone." Lapen concluded. "And five seconds to put it back."

"You magnificent bastard." Aika praised him with a sigh. Lapen shrugged and rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah. Okay, boss. I've got to get back to Hans and make sure that he's got our teams working properly. You, though? I think you're needed on the bridge. The cannon should finish its warmup cycle by the time you get there."

"Right. Carry on then." Aika winked at the man and left.

The _Delphinus_ was back in business.

* * *

_Bridge_

The Yafutoman guards and their Valuan 'advisors' were all corpses being hauled off of the bridge by the crew when Aika finished backtracking her way through the ship to it. Moegi seemed a little pale from the ordeal, but kept her eyes fixed on the simpering form of Muraji Kurowei, who was bleeding from a thin cut on his forehead as he lay on his side, his arms and legs tied together behind his back. Vyse and Enrique and Fina were running from station to station while Lawrence stood at the helm, holding the wheel steady. Vyse caught sight of her and gave her a short nod.

"Give me some good news, Aika."

"Engineering and the Moonstone Cannon are secured. Khazim was headed for his post when we split up. And everyone else should be on a path of destruction…"

The hatch leading into the bridge swung open again, and Marco came racing inside, his hair matted in sweat. "Tikatika and the others just got done sweeping the residential and communal areas of the ship, captain. They sent me to tell you they've got it all fumigated!"

Vyse visibly relaxed, relieved at the news. "Well. Better than expected. They really _weren't_ expecting a boarding action. Good job, Sailor Marco. Go find Pinta and Pow and get ready for damage control."

"Aye, sir!" The boy went running off, and soon after Domingo and Don joined them on the bridge, filling up the missing slots. Don took one look out at the battlefield through the bridge windows and winced.

"This has been a hell of a rescue, but I get the feeling that we're not out of this mess yet."

"You'd be right. Stations, people." Vyse ordered, returning to the captain's chair and cuing up the ship's intercom. "All hands, this is the captain. Aika tells me that the breakout went off flawlessly and Marco just said you finished mopping up the rest of our Valuan infestation. I need everyone at their stations and ready for a tough fight. The Armada's still parked in Yafutoman airspace, and the help we found to get us here and give us a fighting chance is getting the tar beat out of it. If you're listening in, sound off and give me your status!"

_"Engineering here, captain. The Moonstone Reactors are running fine and the turbines are getting solid RPMs. They kept the driveshafts greased while we were stuck in the hold."_ Lapen called back over the squawk.

_"Weapons control, Captain Vyse!"_ Khazim bellowed, as loud and unrestrained as ever. _"All cannons are operational, but one of the torpedo launchers was knocked out of commission. You'll have to make do with five!"_

Aika watched Vyse shake his head from the disappointment of it, and then brush it off. "The ship took some hits before we regained control of it. Anything we need to worry about?"

_"Response team 1, captain." _The voice of the ship's surgeon Ilchymis cut in over the line. _"No injuries to the crew I've been apprised of, and nobody's reported any fires. Pinta's lining up the fire extinguishers, though."_

Fina hummed from her own station, her hands set on the two pillars that were used to charge the ship's moonstone reservoir with spiritual energy. "No damage to the reinforcement systems, Vyse. And the Moonstone Cannon's just finished coming back online."

"Good. We're going to be needing it soon, I think." Vyse was staring out through the glass and towards the ships of the Valuan Armada. Two were turning towards the _Delphinus_ to get into attack position. "I think they just figured out that the _Delphinus_ isn't flying for them anymore." He punched the squawk next to his seat. "General quarters! Prepare for ship to ship combat!"

The _Delphinus_ was attacked by two Valuan frigates. It had taken several hits, pieces of its upper and side armor plating were blasted and warped, it was down a torpedo launcher, and its crew was weakened from captivity.

The two frigates hadn't stood a chance, and they hadn't even had to use the Moonstone Cannon. Vyse had quickly decided against employing it outright; he wanted the Valuans fighting under the false assumption that they outgunned the _Delphinus_ as long as possible. So when the ships closed in, firing their cannons, Aika and Fina paired up on the moonstone feeder lines and clasped their hands to close the circuit, then sent spells of Increm and Quika into the ship's workings. They dodged most of the shells fired at them thanks to Domingo's sharp eyes at the trajectories of the cannons aimed at them and the burst of speed that sang through the four propellor shafts, and the few that managed to land on target had their force blunted by the red glow of magic that surrounded the damaged hull. Then with the order given to open fire, Khazim pounded the Valuans mercilessly. Vengeance was never so sweet as when it came from a Nasrian gunnery crew unleashing hell on a ship infused with the ferocity of the Red Moon's magic.

The first frigate had holes pounded into it from the force of two torpedoes burrowing in through the top and four shells smashing into its bow and amidships. The smoke and the fire that poured out of it as it retreated was all too evident. The second frigate took it even worse as the _Delphinus_ swerved to take aim with its starboard turret and the rear one along its centerline. The warshots they unleashed that time didn't hit the armored hull of the frigate, but instead smashed into the less reinforced citadel at the rear of the ship. The command deck and the living quarters were torn apart by the hits, and the critically damaged ship tipped nose-down and sank for the abyss, burning as it went.

It was brutal and horrific, but it was war, and nobody on the bridge said a word against it. Aika had been fighting against Valua for too long to be squeamish about it now. The Blue Rogues had always been the underdog in their engagements with the Armada, taking worse than they gave when they tried to fight the Valuans on their terms. Now that they had the means to take them head-on and win, it didn't mean they fought any less ferociously. Except for that time Enrique had cajoled them to fight Gregorio by his code of honor, and even then they'd been flying a flag signal offering the admiral and his fleet the chance to surrender and withdraw safely at any time.

There would be no flags offered here. Valua had _invaded_ another kingdom, just like they had with Ixa'taka. The admirals here were Belleza and _Vigoro,_ and Aika wanted them to burn. Vigoro for what he'd done to her, and Belleza for what she'd tried to do. Vyse had confessed to the both of them on the third night of their voyage back from Daccat's Isle what Belleza had said and offered to him, and while she and Fina had both hugged him breathless for refusing Belleza's advances, Aika hadn't forgotten about it. No, there was only one other woman she would _ever_ share Vyse with, and that Valuan tart who gave red-haired women a bad name was _not Fina._ Not by a longshot.

After that first brutal exchange that resulted in the Armada losing a tenth of their overall strength, the rest of the Valuan force quickly took notice. Most cleared away from the _Delphinus,_ not wanting to tangle with the clearly superior firepower and defenses at its disposal. One ship didn't, though. It was twice as large as a frigate, perhaps two-thirds the size of the _Delphinus,_ and was painted solid blue along the underside of its hull. It was bristling with guns, but the most prominent feature it bore was one _massive_ gun that looked like it had been ripped straight out of the Grand Fortress cannon wall.

"The _Draco."_ Enrique said, after Tikatika had yelled down from his station on the lookout's nest to warn them of the approaching danger. Vyse stepped down from the captain's chair and joined him at the window while Aika and Fina stayed at the feeder lines. Aika wasn't breathing hard yet, but the strain of defending against so many shots had definitely gotten her heart rate up. "And aboard her, undoubtedly, will be that fecund wastrel Vigoro." The prince's blue eyes flashed with yellow light from his magic, a sign of just how angry he was. "You all remember what I told you of his ship?"

"Yeah." Aika muttered, glaring at the enormous gun mounted on the bow. How that didn't cause the entire ship to become unbalanced was something that she didn't quite comprehend. "Talk about trying to compensate." There were a few snorts of laughter from the other members of the crew, but Vyse and Fina and Enrique looked at her in horror, because they knew it wasn't entirely made in jest. Aika closed her eyes and breathed in loudly as Fina squeezed her hand.

She wasn't back in that prison cell. Vigoro wasn't here. And she'd long since gotten over the fears that had haunted her from getting forced up close and personal with his pocket rocket.

"Well." Vyse rumbled, a throaty growl that made her relax. "You castrated him once. What do you say we do the same to his ship?" He slipped in between Aika and Fina and took their hands in his own. "Lawrence. Bring us in. Enrique, you have the conn."

"Aye, captain." Prince Enrique said faintly, looking over to Moegi. "Charging the Moonstone Cannon, then?"

"You want us to fight him like we did Gregorio?" Vyse exclaimed, surprised and indignant.

"No." Enrique quickly dismissed the idea, his face going hard again. "No, there will be no half-measures this time, and no mercy." He looked over to Moegi and nodded solemnly. "Vigoro is an invader and an inveterate rapist. His life is forfeit. As Prince of Valua, exiled or no, I declare him an enemy of all True Valuans and of Yafutoma and all of Arcadia." He nodded once more to Moegi in respect, then went up to stand next to Lawrence at the forward windows. _"Kill the bastard."_

Aika cracked a laugh at that, feeling a little faint until Vyse pulled her in closer, and she saw Fina mirroring her to make a small little semicircle with their hands linked. Fina's shining eyes met Aika's, and the Silvite nodded before letting her silver aura blossom into life around her. Vyse's blue one came next, and with another soft breath, Aika let her red aura blend to match it. They took their strength and blended it, and Aika felt Fina lead their awareness through the ship and down into the moonstone reservoir. She felt the power of their magic reinforce the hull and seethe through the ship's wires.

Aika felt the Moonstone Cannon awaken, and the tingling of its building charge sucked up her senses.

Then she felt Fina's presence wrap around her, and Vyse's join it soon after. It felt so good, and so like it had this morning when they'd enveloped her in a three-way hug to reassure her when she had been terrified after looking down into the Abyss.

_We are with you,_ she heard Fina's voice promise her. _We are with you, Aika._

* * *

There were six kinds of magic, all of them tied to one of the Moons that hung above Arcadia like watchful guardians above their homelands. Most people had an affinity for one kind above the rest. Fina's mastery of magic was unparallelled, and her aura and her strength burned unmistakably silver. Vyse's aura ran blue like the coat he never went without or the flag of freedom he bound himself to, but he commanded a mastery of red magic above all other types first. And Aika's aura blazed red like the homeland of her long-dead father, but her primary strength ran in opposition to that promise, of healing and warding.

But beyond that, magic had a _feel_ to it that a person only really got to feel when they were around someone using it enough to pick up on the nuances of it. When they let someone else cast magic on them regularly. When she used her power to heal them, or when she cast that momentary, but all too versatile anti-magic shield, Vyse and Fina said that the warmth they felt from it was like a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds.

With their hands interlinked and Fina guiding them as they fed their power into the ship, it was all too easy to slip away from herself and to just _feel._ To feel Vyse's power as it flowed through her, drifting up her arm and around her heart with the hint of his smile before it reached to her own and their spiritual energy dove into the depths of the metal warship's moonstone heart. To feel Fina's magic, strong and unbreaking, cling to her shoulders like a mantle. One that was warm and comforting in a way that Aika had never known she'd missed and needed. They said her strength was like the warm sun breaking through on a cold day. Vyse's strength felt like a blanket she hid under when there was a fire nearby. Fina's felt like a warm bath that Aika wanted to go boneless and sink into and never climb out of. They were poor descriptors, but there was one trend to it all that the three of them agreed on and loved to feel. Above everything else, when they let their spiritual power combine and flow into each other, there was a feeling of absolute safety and trust. Even when they were charging an enormous cannon.

Especially when said cannon was aimed at a man that Aika despised and Fina and Vyse would gladly flay to the bone to please her.

"Vigoro's not one for tactics." Enrique's voice said, cutting in through the dim haze of their awareness of each other and the ship as their power drained into it. "He prefers to line up in front of his enemy and pound away at them with relentless shelling until they surrender or they're dead. If we try to fight him like we did Gregorio, he'll either call in his other ships to box us in or punish us with secondary cannon fire until we play his game. He's a blunt instrument on a good day, and the admiralty uses him when brutal suppression is called for." Enrique paused, considering. "It's possible that the ships we took down who were chasing Admiral Komullah's surviving fleet were originally under his command before they were split off for that assignment."

_"Suggestions?"_ Vyse asked, his voice drifting a little as the reservoir took in more power.

"Beat him at his own game. Miss Fina, you said that you were working on improvements to the Moonstone Cannon, yes?"

Aika cracked one eye open reluctantly and watched Fina open both of hers with an amused confidence. "We focused the beam for a tighter strike and less power bleed." The Silvite said. "It should improve the range and particle density. And yes, they were finished before we hit Yafutoma, so…"

"That's our play then." Vyse said. "Lawrence?"

"Moving into position, captain." The purple-coated sailor said, turning the wheel to get them lined up. They were on a head-on course for the _Draco_ and he reached for the trigger. "Moonstone Cannon powering up."

Aika closed her eyes again, diving back into the feeling of the ship around them and the lives aboard her that Fina could feel so intimately. When Vyse had first told her about experiencing the sensation of Fina's presence so close to his own when they'd charged the cannon together, she had been jealous of it. The next time they did it, she insisted on being a part of it, and now, neither of her lovers ever protested when she left engineering in the hands of Lapen and Hans to join them on the bridge.

Where else would she want to be but with them, feeling them, and doing the impossible?

Charging the Moonstone Cannon alone had drained Fina so terribly the first time they'd used it that she slipped into black sleep and didn't wake up for hours. Charging it with Fina and Vyse had still winded them. Charging it with all three, and with the modifications that they had put in made it feel almost effortless. Or perhaps that was just an illusion created by being bound so closely to her mates when Fina linked them in the way that Aika and Vyse couldn't manage alone

"Holy...Cannon's approaching peak charge!" Lawrence declared, the surprise he was feeling almost making him sound emotional. "Captain!"

"It's all right." Vyse waved off his concern. "Everything's fine."

"But, captain…" Enrique started. Fina cut him off.

"It's fine. Lawrence?"

"Almost ready to fire. I've got a bead on the _Draco._ But they have a bead on us as well. We're out of turret range still, so are they…The _Draco's_ slowing down."

"It's preparing to fire." Enrique declared hurriedly. "The recoil on the main gun is so powerful that it jerks the ship backwards. I saw a report once about it. The Draco Cannon procedures call for them to come to a full stop to match bearings and fire, and to only re-engage the engines once the shell is unleashed. Otherwise the strain of fighting against the recoil would cause them to shred their engines."

"Moonstone Cannon's ready to fire." Lawrence said, and Aika finally opened her eyes again. Looking out through the front window, she could see the slide rail above that menacing aperture pointed at them moving backwards, cocking the barrel. There was a slight shudder that passed through the hull as the ship's forward bow split open on its hinge to allow the cannon to extend out into firing position.

"Aim for that gun. Straight on." Vyse blurted out.

"Sir?" Lawrence said, a question and a plea all at once. A plea to _move_ out of harm's way, or to try to anyways. A direct hit from that shell would rip the _Delphinus_ in two, magical reinforcement or no.

Aika looked over to Vyse and found him staring out the bridge's reinforced windows as well, and there was a look on his face that she knew all too well. It was the same look he'd had when he told her to _throw her Pyri spell grenade out of the train car's window_ instead of hurling it at Galcian.

It was the look of a man who had a plan and was ready to set it in motion.

"Do as he says." Enrique said, acting as Vyse's first officer just as he was required to. He seconded the order and left no further room for dispute. "Straight on, Mr. Lawrence."

"A - aye, sir." The helmsman made one last adjustment, bringing the targeting reticule projected up on the windshield directly in line with the _Draco_ and its behemoth of a weapon. He gripped the trigger. "On your order."

Vyse waited, and everyone held their breath. Aika could almost feel the anguished screaming they held back. _Why are you waiting? Fire already! Fire now, before they kill us!_

No such doubts lingered in her own mind, or in Fina's, given the Silvite's placid calm. Fina hadn't even opened her eyes, she was just standing there with one hand on the feeder line and her aura still glowing, with a gentle smile on her face.

"NOW!" Vyse finally said, as the cannon finished chambering the round and the slide came back forward to prepare to fire. Lawrence's whole arm twitched as he pulled the trigger, and then there was a glowing nimbus of coruscating light shimmering off of the nose.

Their shots went off almost simultaneously. The blast of smoke from the Draco's cannon when it went off was visible for less than the blink of an eye before the Moonstone Cannon erupted in angry violet light, and everyone on the bridge found themselves staring as the beam shot ahead faster than a bullet could travel, engulfing a large mass entirely. It was the shell that had been fired at them, and it seemed to freeze in flight, trapped in that beam for a moment before it was completely blown away and turned to dust, and the lance of light carried on. The _Draco,_ bounced backwards from the recoil of its shot, was swallowed in the blast.

When it came side-spinning out of it a second later, with the beam flashing for three seconds more before giving out, it looked less like a ship and more like a smoldering ruin that shouldn't have been able to fly. The massive gun on its prow that was the entire point of the ship's unusual design no longer existed; there were just _tattered ribbons_ of metal peeled back like a deck of cards held edge-first into the wind. The cannon's sheer bulk and size had been the _Draco's_ saving grace. What was left of the ship's hull was blackened with charred, bubbling paint. The superstructure itself seemed riddled with holes either from the beam or from _debris from the cannon_ that had punctured through the armor plating after it had been blown apart. Of the other weapons that had once been bristling over the _Draco,_ not one of them was undamaged.

It was, after the look of absolute sheer relief Vyse had given when they'd found him in Daccat's Tomb and the sleepy warm smile Fina had made the morning after she and the Silvite had first made love in Nasrad, one of the most beautiful things Aika had ever seen. It made her laugh. When she saw that the _Draco_ was limping away as fast as it possibly could, she laughed even louder.

"Yeah! Who's the bitch now, Vigoro?!" She crowed, which got some looks in her direction followed by some relieved laughter at having survived an encounter with the ship that had been called _'The Weapon Of First Resort'_ by its blood-soaked career.

"Outstanding work!" Vyse praised the crew, and flashed his warmest smile to Aika and Fina before giving them both a far too platonic hug. "Let that be a reminder to anyone who ever thinks it's a good idea to cross you two. There's _nothing_ you can't do if you put your minds together...including making a better gun, it seems."

Fina rolled her eyes. "I've told you before, Vyse, it's not a proper projectile weapon at all. It merely supercharges…" The Silvite paused when he kept smiling at her and shook her head. "Never mind."

"I hate to break up the celebration, but it seems a little premature." Enrique said, dampening the mood from his post beside the helm. "We've still got the rest of the Armada coming out for us, and if my eyes serve me, that's the _Lynx_ turning in towards us with four ships flanking her."

"Figures." Vyse sighed. "Belleza's probably hopping mad that we pulled a fast one on her." He seemed like he wanted to say more, but that was when the world upended itself again and a light even more blinding than the blast from the Moonstone Cannon shot up into the sky. Gale-force winds that came from nowhere buffeted the _Delphinus_ and sent everyone tumbling to the floor.

"The _hell_ is that?!" Domingo demanded, using the chart table as a handhold to pull himself back up. As the winds died down, all eyes went to the light burning in the distance, and Lawrence turned the ship to stare at it.

Aika felt her mouth run dry. The others on the crew probably didn't know what to make of the beam of shimmering blue light that shot up out of the crater from distant Mount Kazai. But she did. And Vyse did.

And Fina, who stood there trembling in fear and fury alike, definitely knew what that light meant. They had all been witness to two other such pillars of light, one red and one green.

They knew what it looked like when someone awakened a Gigas.

"No!" Fina yelled, and screamed again wordlessly as she dug her fingernails hard enough into her palms to leave marks. "Not again! This isn't happening! Not _again!"_

But it was, and when the light died down, two things were flying away from Mount Kazai. The first was a small personal ship that Moegi, who stole Domingo's spyglass, swore loudly at in Yafutoman before switching to the Mid-Ocean dialect. "It is Minister Kangan Kurowei's personal ship." She looked to Vyse and Aika and Fina, her hands shaking. "You said, the Maga Sphere could awaken a monster."

"Yes." Fina said, staring at the second, much larger thing flying away from the sacred mountain as the ship's escort. A terrifying winged creature of shimmering blue wings, a silver carapace, and chromatic fringes. The Silvite was furious. "Bluheim. Who was probably the source of your legends about the Divine Wind."

"We did not know." Moegi confessed, staring at the monster as it shrieked loud enough to be painful even at a distance. "I did not know it was real!"

Aika scowled, and watched the Armada turn to address the more serious threat as the surviving Tenkou ships scattered and ran for their lives. "But Kangan sure the hell did."

* * *

They had survived Recumen through sheer dumb luck and by trading outright suicide for a hopeless battle against a Valuan flagship in a fishing boat converted to kill arcwhales. They had survived Grendel by _not getting punched_ and by knocking it into a crevasse when it suffered a headache. Both times, they hadn't actually managed to _damage_ the living weapons of a lost age, they'd merely survived until they could manage to neutralize the Gigas itself or their controller.

Fina was fast approaching _another_ meltdown equal to the one she'd had when King Ixa'taka had awakened Grendel, and Aika found herself wondering again why the peoples of the Old World had thought the Gigas such a good idea. They were nothing but trouble, and the wars between them had triggered the wrath of the heavens. The Rains of Destruction. Recumen had turned the desert to glass where its searing eyebeams had landed. Grendel had torn a swath out of the rainforest just by walking through it. Bluheim was the manifestation of the Blue Moon's power, a creature who conceivably commanded the wind and the waves. And it had more firepower and destruction besides.

Aika watched as the Valuan Armada, the combined expeditionary forces of the 3rd and 4th Fleet that hadn't been lost in battle already tried desperately to put up a fight against it. It was hopeless. Torpedoes and shells battered the thing and made it stumble before it got the wind back in its wings, but nothing got _through_ its tough hide. Nothing _hurt_ it. The Gigas Bluheim settled itself, flapping to hover in place, and then a dread light filled its wings and settled in the rainbow-hued fringe along the edges.

It pulled its wings back, unfolding them to their full span, and then _slammed_ them out. It was no ordinary wind it unleashed, but one filled with crackling energy that seemed to blow out windows and cause _explosions_ when those thin tendrils of light in the unleashed windstorm hit something solid. Suffice it to say, after being hit _once_ with that energy-laced gust, the Valuan Armada did the unthinkable. They did something that they'd only ever done one other time in Aika's memory.

Faced with their destruction at the hands of the blue Gigas who had been activated and was operating beyond their control, they turned tail and ran. And then Bluheim turned its attention to the small Tenkou ships, already battered, already fleeing, and no match at all for the power that the Gigas possessed.

"The Divine Wind." Moegi said, her eyes glazed over in fear as she sank to her knees and stared at the decimation unfurling in front of them. "The Divine Wind. It's real. _It's real."_ She kept on stammering that, over and over as the princess of Yafutoma came face to face with the truth of the world. That there were things out there worse than conniving ministers who would sell out their Emperor and the royal family and his _people_ for power. That there was an entire world outside of Yafutoma, a world called Arcadia.

And in the skies of Arcadia, there were _Monsters._

It was an absolute worst-case scenario, and in the face of it, Aika found herself reaching for Fina to hold her lover together before she cracked completely. She had no good ideas to offer, no real solutions.

Vyse did, though. He was the captain. He always had ideas. He always knew just what to say. Especially now. There was a moment, _just one moment_ where he looked almost panicked. But then the moment passed, his mouth closed, his lips thinned. His eyes narrowed, and the scar on his cheek (The scar she loved to trace first thing in the morning to wake him up, because no matter how many times he said he loved her, she needed only to look at it to remember how he had gotten it saving her life when they were still _children_ to know it down to her bones) rippled when the muscles underneath flexed.

"Don't freeze up now, people. We're not through yet." He said, his voice hard and commanding. Every head on the bridge turned to him even with Bluheim flying outside and making ready to rampage on the scattered Tenkou. "Lawrence. Start us after Bluheim, we've got to keep the Tenkou safe." Vyse went back to the captain's chair and sat down on it, settling down on it without a tremor of doubt or worry. He adjusted the black pirate's hat that he'd not gone without since they made for The Dark Rift and sat up straight, looking out through the bridge's reinforced windows with brown burnished steel in his eyes, backlit by the blue of his Code and the skies he sailed. Aika's breath caught in her chest and she froze watching him then, and the words of the fortuneteller Kalifa came unbidden.

_'What guidance do you seek, Lord of Rogues?' _The woman that hid behind thick glasses had asked him. Vyse had laughed it off, refuting the title. Aika saw it, though. For a second, she saw the Lord of Rogues that Kalifa had.

He reached for the toggle on the ship's intercom beside his chair and activated it, and everyone listened.

"All hands, listen up. We just blasted Vigoro's face off and what's left of the Armada is running for the hills. And ordinarily, I'd be the first one of you to jump up in the air and start cheering. The only problem is, we weren't the ones who sent them packing, and neither are the Tenkou."

He drummed his fingertips on his armrest. "You all know why we're sailing the world, what we're chasing after. The Moon Crystals, so we can stop Valua from using them to wage war and cause the Rains of Destruction to come down on all our heads again. You all know that we found the Blue Moon Crystal in that giant mountain, and that we were hoping to take it with us when we left. Well, Valua invading put a pin in that balloon awful fast, and it turns out that the Moon Crystal didn't get taken by them after all. The Yafutoman minister who sold out their king and his country for power had it all along, and he's decided to wake up the monster sleeping in the mountain. The Blue Gigas is out to play, it's following Kangan's orders, and it just scattered the Armada. Now it's going after the Tenkou, the Yafutomans who were willing to stand up and fight against oppression just like us Blue Rogues. It's because of them we were able to get back aboard this ship! It's because of them that we were able to save you! And I'll be damned if I let them die for it!"

There was an art to giving speeches. Dyne didn't like to, he preferred to give orders and to rely on quiet, cool authority, which was inspiring in its own way. Still, the old man must have had some talent at it when he was younger. How the hell else had he talked Centime and all the others to abandon Valua and flock to the banner of the Blue Rogues twenty years ago? And Vyse's mom Relena, who was _her_ mom for all intents and purposes, and had accepted the role of being Fina's by dint of their bond with her son, had always had a way of speaking that could make Aika glow or shrivel, depending on what she'd done.

Vyse preferred to speak simply and directly most of the time, but he definitely had the talent for it. He just saved it for when it mattered most. Like _right freaking now._

"I'll level with you all. Myself, Aika, and Fina have gone up against Gigas before. Recumen in the Nasrian desert. Grendel in the forests of Ixa'taka. We couldn't hurt either of them, and it was a miracle we lived through it. And unlike Bluheim which is out in front of us right now, those two were ground-bound. The Gigas are the monsters of the Old World, things that should never have been made. Things bad enough that the Old World got wiped out to stop them. If we could get to Kangan, tear the Blue Moon Crystal out of his hands, we could command the Gigas to stop. But you know as well as I do that's not going to happen, not with that monster at his beck and call. There's no running away this time. There's no flying out of range this time. There's just a monster that will kill everyone around it, and nothing for it but to try and put it down. We've never been able to really hurt a Gigas before, much less kill it. But here's the rub...we didn't have all of you before. And we Didn't. Have. This. Ship."

Fina had wiped the last of her tears away by then. Aika held her best girl tight and felt something brighter burn through her, ripping away the grief of going up against a third Gigas and filling her with resolve. This was Vyse's real power. Others could give orders. Others could lead. Vyse did all of that and more.

He made people _follow him._ He made them believe.

Vyse stared out the window, looking at Bluheim as they drew closer to it and the great flying behemoth seemed to finally recognize them as a greater threat than the Tenkou.

"Valua built an entire ship around the Moonstone Cannon. Unaltered, we blew a hole through the Grand Fortress with it and flew out. And Fina and Aika have made it stronger since then. We've stopped pursuing fleets, we split the monster inside the Dark Rift in two. This is the _best damn ship_ in all of Arcadia and it has the best damn crew! We are all that stands between Yafutoma's freedom and survival and that thing, and Blue Rogues help out those in need! Today, we make a stand! Today, we save another kingdom from Valua and from the Gigas that would destroy it! Today, **we kill a god!"**

The answering roars overwhelmed the speakers on the bridge as every station responded to his impassioned speech. It was enough to make the cries from the bridge crew equal their fervor, even Fina. The Silvite seemed restored, and even Moegi was back on her feet, color returning back to her face.

"Can you really do it?" The princess asked Vyse, as the Blue Rogue hopped off of his chair and sauntered down into the bridge to stand between the helm and the feeder lines to the moonstone reservoir. "Can you really kill that thing?"

Aika laughed and chose to answer for Vyse. "Guess we'll find out, your highness. Just remember; Blue Rogues never back down from a greater danger."

"Not when innocent lives are on the line." Vyse hummed in agreement, patting Lawrence on the shoulder before activating the squawk next to the helm. "All hands, we're engaging!"


	36. Delphinus, The Godslayer

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Thirty-Six: Delphinus, The Godslayer**

_Yafutoman Airspace_

_200 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_High Noon_

Vyse knew that his crew, his friends and especially his loves looked to him for guidance and inspiration. It was part of the responsibilities, and the weight, of being a captain. He'd always wondered how his father Dyne could be so calm and unflappable in the face of uncertain odds and dangerous skies. In the quiet of their bedroom, he shared his doubts with Aika and Fina and let the two assuage them away. He would even speak to Enrique about it. And other times, when they were hurting or troubled, he would be the rock they needed. It was a lesson Dyne had shared with him long ago, and reaffirmed when he left with Aika and Fina and Drachma on the _Little Jack_ after their first escape from the Grand Fortress.

_**'Being a leader isn't always about having the right answer, or always looking invincible. You find people willing to share the burden with you. You find people who can give you the answers you don't have, the ideas you need. You be their strength, and let them be yours. You can wear the mask that people expect around everyone else. Just let it down when you have the time to, so that when you can't put it down, it won't crack on you.'**_

The ship hummed with power and purpose, and outside of the reinforced windows on the bridge a monster of the Old World, the Gigas Bluheim slowly turned around towards them. It arced in a lazy circle, unhurried and unafraid of them. Every life on board this ship was his responsibility. Hidden away from everyone, he was screaming in his head because this would be the third time that he'd gone up against a Gigas, and the first time that running wasn't an option. He was staring death in the face, and that he was somehow able to hold it together was less a testament to any reckless bravery on his part than it was sheer determination. His crew needed him to be strong and unbreakable. So he was.

"Khazim." He used the ship's intercom to touch base with fire control.

_"Yes, captain!"_

"Get Tikatika on the line and have him feed you firing solutions for the torpedoes. Fire main guns at your discretion." And there was another question; would the standard shells and their torpedoes do anything to a Gigas? When the whole of the 3rd and 4th Fleets hadn't even put a _dent_ into it? The firepower of the _Little Jack_ had never fazed them, and even De Loco's fleet had been unable to damage Grendel. The Harpoon Cannon had only managed to knock the green giant around enough to stagger it into a canyon. They'd know soon enough, anyways. Vyse couldn't escape the thought that somehow, it would all boil down to the Moonstone Cannon to do the job of killing the beast. It was bastardized Silvite technology built by a Valuan madman, and re-tuned by a Silvite priestess who knew more about 'energy weapons' than anyone else on board. It was a longshot, but he'd stopped an entire fleet with it once, and killed a monster housed inside of the Dark Rift also. He was taking a chance, and even Vyse knew better than to take every bet offered to him.

But he looked to Princess Moegi, struggling to stand up and piece herself together as she stared at a monster revived out of mythology, and knew that this was one bet he had to take. For Yafutoma. For Arcadia.

For everyone.

"Aika. Fina. Get the cannon charged up and ready to fire again." Vyse ordered. "Let me know if you need me or Enrique to help as well." Aika tossed him an easy salute and set one hand down on the pedestal of a moonstone feeder line, then took Fina's free hand in hers to close the loop.

Vyse bounded up to stand by Lawrence and stare out the window, as if those few lengths would make a difference. He looked at Bluheim through his telescopic goggle lens and squinted at it, paying attention to the coruscating light in its wings, the long neck and the tapered, blunt head full of eyes. Or maybe its eyes were on its stomach, the thing was a dizzying monstrosity nowhere close to a true bird in appearance. It was more of a madman's cobbled together mess.

_Figure out what it can do._

Blow massive gusts of wind, for one. And sometimes that wind had power in it. But Vyse doubted that was all it was capable of. Grendel had been able to do more than throw a punch, and Recumen hadn't been limited to the firepower of a single head, a problem that had made it more of a walking, rotating gun turret.

_Figure out what you can do._

Annoy the thing. Maybe, _probably_ hurt it with the Moonstone Cannon. Fly fast. Maybe not as fast as Bluheim, though. Or as high. Or as low.

So. It was a question of outlasting the thing. The _Delphinus_ was a hell of a ship, and they could augment its armament and armor with magic through the moonstone reservoir and the lines that ran through the ship's armor plating and guns.

He reached for the squawk next to the helm. "All hands, _especially_ those in the galley, make sure everything's tied down and everything flammable is turned off." He ended the call and looked to Lawrence. "Hold course, Mr. Lawrence. You ready for some crazy flying?"

"How crazy, sir?"

"Wish I had an answer for you. Just be ready for some quick moves."

"Ah. Business as usual then." Lawrence deadpanned. "Care to take the wheel, captain? You perform crazy better than I do."

"If I have to. Hold her steady, Mr. Lawrence."

"We're headed straight for it, captain." Lawrence said, and there was a touch of worry in the normally unflappable sailor's voice. It made Vyse crack a single snorting laugh. So, the ice man could panic as well as anyone else when faced with a giant monster. That was actually reassuring in a way.

"Exactly." Vyse said, unable to help the grin. He didn't have an idea yet of this thing's true speed or maneuverability, and the time to learn it wasn't when they were turning away and the thing could come up on their flanks. They would meet head-on in their first pass, and give Khazim and his gunnery crew a chance to really unload on the thing. It was just unnerving in the meantime.

Two torpedoes were loosed with three in reserve at first, soaring up above them before turning and tracking down at Bluheim, and all four turrets and their eight barrels adjusted and took aim, their angles raised just enough for the parabola that Tikatika and Khazim must have agreed on for a possible hit. Though Vyse thought that they seemed a little off, he didn't say anything and waited. Bluheim shifted slightly as the torpedoes flew down towards it so that they missed it cleanly. Just as he'd expected, for the shift brought Bluheim right in line with the guns, which were already firing even as it extended its neck and arcing purple lightning raced along the front curve of its wings towards its head. Eight shots were loosed and eight shells hit it dead in the face or along its leading body behind its neck well within moderate distance and close to point blank firing range, and Bluheim reeled back as the shells detonated with explosions and concussive force.

Amidst the cheering, Bluheim pulled up and out of their face-off, and the strange crackling lightning loosed in a salvo of blue balls of light that detonated well clear of the _Delphinus._

_"Direct hit!" _Tikatika called over the intercom from the lookout's tower, and Lawrence turned hard to port to get after it without being prompted. _"Not sure about the damage, but we averted that first attack! I don't think we want to get hit with it!"_

Bluheim had pulled up and away and behind the _Delphinus,_ and Vyse couldn't get a clear view of it. "What's it doing now, huntmaster?"

_"Shaking its head and coming about."_ Tikatika answered. _"We're turning to follow it, and...Gah! Captain, it is undamaged! I see only surface blemishes along its skin. It must have thick scales like the great Gerfani serpents!"_

Sure enough, as the _Delphinus_ finished its turn and came after Bluheim again, Vyse could see that it flew with the same level of grace and agility that it'd had before.

"Well." Vyse imagined his smile was more brittle than usual, but he still made one for everyone on the bridge. "At least we know the turrets can get his attention." He stepped away from the windows and moved to the station next to Fina and Aika, where he could check the charge in the ship's moonstone reservoir. Amazingly, Fina and Aika had brought it almost all the way to the threshold for another shot from the main gun in the ship's belly. "Mr. Lawrence. Prepare to fire the Moonstone Cannon. Let's line this bird up for some much-deserved roasting on a spit."

"You're assuming that it will come straight at us again, Vyse." Enrique pointed out sagely. "After the tumbling we gave it, it will be expecting a repeat of the shelling. And it won't veer off this time."

"Good." Vyse said. "Because we don't want it veering off. Aika, Fina, keep the charge steady. You're doing wonderfully."

Sure enough, the gap between the _Delphinus_ and Bluheim was shrinking rapidly as they turned in towards one another. Lawrence reached for the firing switch as the targeting reticule was projected up on the glass, and he kept the ship level. Vyse knew by now that also meant that the forward hull had opened up to allow the Moonstone Cannon's barrel to extend out and begin to charge. The thing's head had retracted up and back and there was a swarthy beating of its wings, which battered the ship and sent it scrambling. Lawrence's hand pulled away from the firing button and gripped the telemotor with both hands again. "No good, sir. I can't fly and fire at the same time!"

Vyse lunged up next to him and set his hand over the ominous red button. "I can. Keep her steady!"

They moved in even closer, and with its head pulled back and out of immediate bombardment, Bluheim stretched its spindly leg fins forward, their tips glowing with ominous light. Like the talons of a hawk reaching for a rabbit, Vyse mused. The rainbow light on them shimmered more blue against the purple gleam off of the _Delphinus'_ nose.

Khazim, having been given free reign to fire whenever he had a shot available, let the now reloaded turrets loose once more with puffs of smoke and a shiver that rocked the ship just a hair more than the winds did for a moment. Lawrence trimmed the _Delphinus_ back up even as the shells flew on, and Vyse watched as Bluheim suddenly jinked away from its position, dodging the shells…

And threw itself right into the crosshairs of the Moonstone Cannon. Vyse didn't shout out an order, the gun was his to command and his finger was on the button. He jammed it down and the light that had been gathering pulled back for half a second before exploding back out as the angry beam of pure destruction it signaled. Bluheim's head was clear of the blast, but its outstretched lower limbs and its belly were directly in the line of fire, and the thing let out a horrific shriek when the beam hit. It writhed, caught on it for what seemed an eternity before it beat its wings and jerked clear of the rapidly dissipating blast, trailing smoke and a glittering mess of something else that came flying from its blackened body and ventral fins.

They didn't know what it was until they flew through the wake of it and it splattered across the deck and the turrets, splashes of bright blue and chunks of glittering, nearly metallic flakes and duller steel-toned flesh.

Everyone on the bridge stared at the deluge, until Enrique found his voice. "Is that…"

"It's blood." Aika answered him, looking a little pale as she and Fina stood with their hands still clasped together, but no longer touching the feeder lines. "That's Bluheim's blood."

"A Gigas's blood." Fina rasped out, something darkly triumphant in her blue eyes. "A Gigas can bleed." Vyse latched on to those words as he realized what she was inferring. What she'd implied.

"If it can bleed, it can be killed!" Vyse roared, and there was a moment where everyone sucked in a breath of air before they roared, and then Lawrence was spinning the wheel around to get back on Bluheim's tail. It was a shift in the battle, the realization that they weren't trying to do the impossible. That they could actually win.

_"Captain! The Gigas is glowing along its neck and towards its head! It's doing something!" _Tikatika's voice from the lookout tower broke over the jubilant mood like the wind that knocked down a house of straw.

The _Delphinus_ finished its turn and came up behind Bluheim, watching the Gigas flying away from them with swift wingbeats and its head raised towards the clouds that separated the Central and Upper Sky. Along its neck and towards its head, Vyse saw a rising wave of fluorescent blue light glow beneath the surface of its skin and scales, gathering in the multitude of eye-like structures there.

Then it unleashed a blinding beam of blue light from its head up into the clouds, which darkened and thickened in seconds, roiling with untold power.

_"Evasive maneuvers!"_ Vyse screamed, only a moment before the clouds broke apart and a rain of energy blasts came screaming down towards them.

* * *

It was like trying to outrun a rainstorm, Vyse thought as he leapt for the moonstone feeder lines and gripped them tightly. He poured the power of an Increm spell into the ship, hoping that the already battered armor would survive the pounding and that Lawrence would steer them through the worst of it. His girls were at his side a moment after he started, Fina's soft hand and Aika's callused one covering both of his, and he gasped at the contact as their magic connected again and they joined him in the chorus.

_Stronger,_ Vyse spoke in his mind and winced as the ship swerved under his feet while Lawrence piloted the ship away from the largest beams of angry light that Tikatika shouted through the comms to warn them of. But for every one that they dodged, there seemed to be another smaller one that they couldn't, and the impacts still added up to untold pain. Pain that Vyse felt as it battered against his defensive spell and the armor beneath it. _Hold, damn you. Hold! _

The feedback from the blows stung his hands, and he hissed and somehow kept his grip on the pedestals, maintaining the spell through the worst of it. The storm of energy rain finally dissipated and Vyse let go of the feeder ports, stumbling backwards.

"Shit." Aika said, and Fina let out a gasp of dismay. His hands _hurt,_ and Vyse found that he didn't want to look at his palms. Twitching his fingers hurt too much. "Vyse!"

"I'm fine." He got out, and took another step before the pain overwhelmed him. As his girls cried his name out again, he slumped forward. Into the arms of Enrique and Don.

"Easy there, captain." Don said gruffly. "We've got you."

"The ship." Vyse clenched his eyes shut. "S...status."

"We're still flying." Enrique told him crisply, and he and Don guided him back towards the captain's chair, slumping him into it. He heard Enrique hit the intercom. "Damage repair teams, get moving! Tikatika, where were we hit?"

_"Up by the torpedo launchers. One of the turrets took a hit as well, and there's a hole in the foredeck that wasn't there before!"_

_"Fire control to bridge!"_ Khazim's voice was next. _"That's confirmed! We've got fires down here and we're racing to put them out, but you can consider torpedo tubes 3 and 5 down and the port turret out of commission! I'm not going to fire that until I can make sure it won't blow up in our faces if we try!"_

Vyse let out a strangled scream as his hands were grabbed by the wrists and wrenched up, but the flaring pain began to subside in moments, enough that he could open his eyes up again. Fina and Aika were kneeling beside his mounted chair, each holding one of his hands and pouring healing green light into it.

"Sacres?" He wheezed, when his voice finally came back to him.

"Sacrulen." Aika snorted, the derision in her voice revealed as false by the wetness in her eyes. Fina didn't say a word, and just looked at him while she bit her lip. "You _idiot._ Why didn't you let go?"

"Couldn't risk the ship." Vyse told her, meaning it. "I...I didn't expect that, though. How did that attack hurt me?"

"Not the attack." Fina finally said, shaking her head fast enough that her blond hair danced around her face. "The feedback. You pushed too much of your spiritual power into the ship too fast, and it _burned_ you."

"That's a thing?" Vyse gawped. "How come you never got burned then?"

"Priestess." Fina told him succinctly. "I've trained. And you shouldn't have been burned either. If you'd let us help you."

"Seriously, Vyse." Aika let go of his now healed hand as she stood up, and he took a moment to examine his palm with fresh pink skin before she flicked a finger hard against his forehead. "Didn't you _feel_ us? You don't pull off something that crazy alone! You have to let us help you, no matter how much you buy into that 'the captain has to stand alone' crap that your dad says! Nobody can stop that thing, not by themselves!"

What could Vyse say to that? He had nothing in his own defense save for outright panic in the moment and the pure driven instinct to _hold the ship together._ So he nodded his head and surrendered to their wisdom.

"Good." Aika's shoulders relaxed a little at that, and she looked over to Fina. "Is he fixed?"

"He's fixed." Fina confirmed, and stood back up again. "Come on, captain. We're not done fighting yet."

"No. We're not." Vyse took in a breath, the pain of his self-inflicted feedback burns a distant memory, and gripped the armrests of the captain's chair. "Mr. Lawrence?"

"We're holding course, sir." Lawrence said. "No noticeable listing or sluggishness in the controls, the damage was minimal."

"Small miracles." Vyse conceded. He punched the intercom. "Bridge to lookout's tower. Tikatika, what's Bluheim doing now?"

_"That attack seems to have winded it a bit. It's keeping its distance and circling around us, probably trying to get behind us."_

"It's what I'd do if I just got smoked." Vyse said, and suppressed a shiver as another thought percolated at that admission.

_Bluheim was __**smart.**_ Fighting a brutish creature would be one thing; for all that Grendel had been an unstoppable force of _literal nature,_ it had been more reactionary, sluggish and debilitated by the unending pain that its existence gave to it. The thing having intellect enough to plan and adapt made Bluheim so much worse.

"Time to change our tactics." Vyse told everyone, pushing himself out of the chair. He knew he was frowning as he kept his eyes on Bluheim, still circling and just barely in view off of the starboard windows. "Lawrence? I need the helm."

The helmsman in the purple coat gave a fast nod of his head at that, stepping to the side and keeping one hand on the wheel until Vyse had both hands on the spokes of the telemotor. "All yours, sir."

"Vyse, what are you going to do?" Enrique asked warily.

"Something crazy." Vyse said, and looked over to Aika and Fina. "Got enough energy in you for another cannon blast?"

"Yes." Fina said, and her eyes flared bright silver for a moment as she clenched her hands into fists. "Enrique? We'll need your assistance."

"Yes, Miss Fina." The exiled prince raced to join Aika and Fina at the moonstone feeder ports and they formed a circuit, a red and silver aura joining with his yellow one before they closed their eyes.

On the bridge for a lack of anywhere better or safer to be, Princess Moegi looked to the three before gingerly stepping up to stand five paces away from the helm. She looked to Vyse, worry in her eyes. "You are well?"

"Fit as a fiddle." Vyse told her, smiling even as he turned the wheel hard over and tightened his turn. Bluheim's form slowly began to come back towards the center window as the distance between the ship and the Gigas allowed Vyse to make a tighter turn. "Why are you worried?"

"I feel helpless." Moegi confessed. "All of you fight to save my people, my homeland. What can I do? Even Daigo fights. I cannot heal. I cannot fight."

"Not everyone needs a sword to make a difference, your highness." Vyse reassured her. "Sometimes, all you need is someone brave enough to stand up in front of the danger and keep it from getting past you. You're not a weapon, Moegi. But you are a guardian. The girls and Enrique all talked to me. I know about the life you've had." Vyse risked a glance to the side to meet her eyes. "You're braver than you know. Anyone else would have run years ago from the duty and the responsibilities that were forced on you. There's steel in you, Moegi. And I just hope I'm there the day that you realize that there's more to you than an empty crown."

She still looked pensive, and Vyse looked back ahead of him at the Gigas. "It's a thought, anyways."

"How do you know there is more to me?" Moegi asked him softly, filling up the lull of empty space in the battle as he tried to close the gap between ship and Gigas.

"Who am I?" Vyse asked, meeting her question with a question.

"You are a captain. You are a pirate of the West who commands absolute loyalty. You are beloved and feared, and there is honor even in your deceptions." Moegi replied, not hesitating for a moment.

Vyse smirked. "And before I was any of that? I was just the son of Captain Dyne, a boy trying to follow in his father's footsteps." He gripped the spokes of the wheel tighter still as Bluheim's ferocious wingbeats made the winds around them start to whip up wildly. "I became who everyone else sees, and there's still days I wonder who they're talking about. So I know a thing or two about potential...and about how sometimes, other people see it in you before you do."

_"Tower to Bridge. Captain, the Gigas is glowing along its wings again!"_ Tikatika shouted over the intercom. _"I'm going below cover, these winds are too fierce for me!"_

"Roger!" Vyse answered back, moving the switch to ship-wide after. "Bridge to all hands. Hold on to something, Bluheim's going to try and blow us away again!" He shut off the squawk and called back over his shoulder. "Aika, Fina, Enrique, how soon until that cannon's charged up again?"

"Twenty...seconds…" Enrique grunted. "The girls are flagging…"

Of course they were, Vyse cursed himself. They'd all been running more on adrenaline since they boarded the _Delphinus_ and they'd already fired the Moonstone Cannon twice already, once against Vigoro and again with their opening shot on Bluheim. This would be shot number three. Even with the modifications to the cannon, that was asking a lot. A miss would be disastrous.

_So don't miss._

Vyse drew in a breath. "Everyone holding on to something?" He asked the bridge's crew loudly. He could see Bluheim beating its wings again, filling the air with trails of wispy blue energy that it sent hurling at the _Delphinus._ There were several seconds of waiting between the attack and its arrival that Vyse used to steer through the eddies. He treated it like he would any other headwind, and steered into it to minimize the ship's profile. That and careful use of the ship's maneuvering spinners kept the _Delphinus_ riding through the storm, with the damage limited to minimal surface scouring and abrasions. The ship fairly hummed as Aika, Fina, and Enrique all hissed at once and again bolstered the ship's armor with a thin Increm spell. It kept the ship from being torn apart, but was clearly exhausting on top of their existing drain.

Still. Once they got past the attack, Bluheim was still flying in a circle around the _Delphinus,_ keeping clear of point blank range. It must have been planning to batter them with long-range attacks. As good a plan as anything else, with one exception;

The Moonstone Cannon's range was longer than the Valuans had originally thought possible. And longer than Bluheim was expecting.

"Charge ready." Fina said, a bone-deep weariness in her voice as she stepped back from the feeder lines and stumbled a bit.

"Got it." Vyse hit the intercom next to the helm. "Khazim! Whatever torpedo tubes we have that're still functional, fire them. Bearing 038, and set to long-range homing!"

The three torpedo launchers that were still intact popped their lids, and bursts of compressed steam and air launched the pillars twice the height of a man into the skies, where their moonstone engines ignited and sent them screaming off towards the rallying Gigas.

Vyse whistled to Lawrence, and the purple-coated mercenary bounded up beside him. "Sir?"

"You're on the button this time, Mr. Lawrence."

"Can we hit that thing? At this distance?" The helmsman asked warily.

Vyse raised one hand up to the goggle that sat on his face opposite of his trademark scar and dialed up the zoom, squinting at the magnified form of Bluheim in the distance and the three torpedoes screaming towards it. It was charging up for another attack already.

"We'll hit it."

"But captain, we…"

"We'll. **Hit. It."** Vyse thundered, a snarl that dared Lawrence and anyone else to try and tell him differently. Nobody did. They just held their breath as Bluheim kept on glowing, a concentrated pulse of power that blossomed in its chest and lit up the skies, bright enough to blind people.

Vyse flipped down the special lens that filtered out excessive light he'd been given by Doc in Mid-Ocean, a lens made specifically to search for the moonfish that hid in plain view. The nimbus of light was dampened, and he saw the beast within, rallying and arching to get clear of the torpedoes that streaked down towards it. One missed cleanly. The second exploded off of its wing and disrupted it enough to make it warble, and the third...The third burrowed into its back and detonated with enough force to penetrate the upper deck plating of standard warships. Not enough to truly damage a Gigas. But enough to stun it for a second.

Long enough for Vyse to draw a bead, and after shifting the spinners to keep the ship level and the beam on target, he shouted the order. Lawrence hit the firing button, the nose of the _Delphinus_ exploded in light once more, and the particle beam raced on faster than the eye could follow, smashing into its exposed, glowing belly.

The scream it let out was just as deafening as before, even at a distance. It writhed and flapped its wings, halting its forward momentum in an attempt to dodge the beam, but Vyse worked the maneuvering spinners with a practiced hand and the other still on the wheel, slowing their rate of turn so that the beam only went off target for perhaps half a second. The brunt of it burned into Bluheim's body mercilessly before the attack finally cut out.

Somehow, Bluheim was still flying afterwards. Smoke wafted off of its frame, and what he now knew was blood dripped from countless small wounds. Large parts of its belly were blackened, and holes had been torn through parts of its wings. One ventral fin had been torn clean off, either lost to the abyss or blown away entirely. If it had been hurt before, now it was reeling, limping along. But it wasn't dead yet, and its attention was wholly on the _Delphinus._

The power that it had been building up stuttered, but picked up once more, and Vyse sucked in air. "Take the wheel, Lawrence!" He raced for the Moonstone feeder ports and for Aika and Fina, where they both looked haggard after the last charge. Even Enrique wasn't up to his usual level of activity, and all three of them stood on unsteady legs, almost afraid to reach for the charging ports. The forgotten Muraji Kurowei, trussed up like a baby steer, whimpered in his forgotten corner, insensate in the face of divinity turned into horror.

Bluheim screamed again, deafening everyone for the span of four seconds before the battered and bloodied Gigas cut off the bellow and loosed its next attack. This time, it was no gust of wind, no cutting blades of energy laced within it. It was no beam that shot into the clouds and rained down death.

It unleashed an angry wave of blue fire that came soaring at the _Delphinus_ like a wave, one that spread out rapidly and widened until there was no turning or changing altitude to avoid it.

"Oh, hell." Vyse uttered, and gripped the pedestals tightly, pouring his magic into it. As the fires closed in, the heat of the wave warped the very air, making the skies shimmer in front of the _Delphinus. _The Blue Rogue grit his teeth and fought off the dizziness and the aching weariness that leeched into his bones as he forced more of his already strained reserves into the ship's heart, powering up a defensive spell in the face of annihilation.

A spell that he had the lurching sensation would do next to nothing at all. Not against that much literal firepower.

"Fina...Aika…" Vyse croaked out, calling out for his loves. For comfort? For aid? So that he wouldn't be alone when he burned, or that they wouldn't? They had given their full measure already against the Armada and against Bluheim, did they have any strength left in them?

He closed his eyes as the drain of the spell made his sight go blurry, wondering if he would have to try and face Bluheim's wave of fire alone. And then it came; hands, pressing down against his own. Hands that were filled with power, not burning, but trickling like a cold stream. It was magic unlike any he'd ever felt before, and the soothing relief of it made him gasp and open his eyes as his meager spell of defense was subsumed and replaced with something else.

Something greater.

It wasn't Fina there at his side, nor Aika. Not even Enrique. They were frozen half a step out, staring dumbstruck as someone else had crowded in beside him.

Standing with her palms pressed to the backs of his hands and with a trembling and faint aura shades lighter than the deep blue of Vyse's own, Princess Moegi Tokugawa looked out through the windows at the oncoming firestorm with eyes that glowed Yafutoman blue.

**"No."** Moegi's shaky voice let out, and Vyse felt her power. Like a well uncapped for the first time, it poured out of her, turning from a stream into a raging waterfall. Through their connected hands and his feel for the ship, he could sense her power screaming from the moonstone reservoir to the web of wires under and through the armor plating. It wasn't an augmentation, it wasn't a blending of magic that strengthened the connections between the moonstone-laden steel plating. Where his power settled into the ship's skin, hers swelled up through it and manifested outside of it. Less of an augmentation...and more of a wall.

The words he had spoken to her less than five minutes before came back to him in a flash.

_Sometimes, all you need is someone brave enough to stand up in front of the danger and keep it from getting past you._

Despite himself, Vyse let out an incredulous laugh as Moegi tapped into a reservoir of power that, by how she was gasping and trembling at his side, she hadn't known she possessed. Moegi had been brutally honest. She had no talent for warfare. She was no battle caster, no healer. She had no access to the magic of the blue moon or the green. But she had power regardless, one that few could match. And _her hands_ didn't burn as she let it flow out of her, hard and fast.

Like the crumbling ruins of the Guardian Walls that they had flown past, Moegi's power formed a shield of Yafutoman blue light around the whole of the ship. When the wave of fire struck, it flowed over her magical shield and around the ship like water, and not even the heat of it got past the barrier. The _Delphinus_ came out on the other side of that blistering wave untouched, and Moegi's aura held up for two more seconds before flickering and giving out, just when her knees did.

Enrique made a soft noise and dove for the princess, catching her in his arms as he fell to his knees to save her from hitting the ground. Her eyes fluttered in a familiar cadence, and Vyse knew she'd expended all of her strength to manage the save. "Moegi?"

"Did...did it work?" The princess asked weakly, looking up into Enrique's eyes.

"Yes." Enrique smiled down at her. "You beautiful, brave woman. You saved us all. I don't know how, but you saved us all."

Moegi smiled and let her eyes fall shut. "You saved me first." She slipped into a light doze after, her breathing steady as Enrique stood up, cradling her against his chest.

Fina reached a hand out and touched Moegi's forehead in concentration, then nodded. "She'll be fine. She's just exhausted."

"Put her in the captain's chair for now. And buckle her in." Vyse told Enrique. He let out a huff of relief, then turned his attention outwards, staring at Bluheim as the battered and bloodied Gigas flapped its wings and gained altitude, going higher than the _Delphinus_ could match.

"We're not done yet."

* * *

With Moegi secured in the captain's chair and Aika and Fina beginning to put themselves together again after charging their third cannon blast in less than an hour, Vyse returned to the helm where Don was already standing off of Lawrence's right shoulder. Vyse took the left, and they all stared out the window as Lawrence tracked in a pursuit course with a steady grade of ten degrees. Enough to tilt the deck, but well within safety tolerances.

"Okay, I'm stumped." Don muttered. "Maybe fighting monsters from the Old World is something you're used to by now, captain, but I'm still trying to get my sea legs back under me. What the hell is it doing?"

"Staying out of range?" Lawrence put forth the idea, though he didn't seem to be buying it much himself. "We can't fly that high. That's well into the Upper Sky. Could our torpedoes go that high?"

"I wouldn't bet on it." Vyse said, dialing in his goggle again and frowning. "It's hovering now. And it's doing _something_ with its wings." It almost looked like it was trying to dance, really. The prismatic fringe of its wings were glowing brightly, sending patterns of light from the base all the way down to the thin edges, and while still hovering in place, it whipped around in a circle, flapping its wings in a particular pattern that didn't set his mind at ease.

That feeling of utter dread only picked up when he saw the clouds close to Bluheim begin to swirl in the start of a circular pattern around it. "Oh, shit. It's doing something with the wind." The _Delphinus_ shuddered a little bit and Lawrence hissed as he tightened his grip on the spokes of the telemotor.

"It's thrown wind at us before. Why do I feel like this is going to be worse?"

"Because it will be." Fina said, her skin almost as pale as her dress was when Vyse looked back to her. The Silvite stared through the glass at Bluheim's distant form and scowled. "The magic of the Blue Moon channels power over the wind and the waves. Bluheim holds those powers in abundance; they are its strongest. It's hurled energy blasts at us, conjured rainstorms of laserfire and thrown a tidal wave of plasma. But for all of that, it hasn't tapped into what it can truly do. Now it is."

Vyse swallowed. "Fina? What can it do?"

He'd never seen the Silvite look so tired as she did then. Even after she'd powered up the Moonstone Cannon to blast them out of the Grand Fortress and slept for hours, she'd slept with a small smile and a sense of satisfaction. Now she stared out at Bluheim as it glowed with power, battered but still alive, and looked like she was staring at a storm that had no end.

"The Rains of Destruction destroyed the Old World completely. But the stories always spoke of the power of the Gigas as being almost as bad. They could level cities and even a continent, if left unchecked. Grendel's rampage after it survived the Rains took the survivors from the Green Civilization and made them hunter-gatherers with stone tools and flint arrows. Bluheim commands the very winds." She nodded her head at the window in a short bob. "It's making a storm. A storm unlike any storm you've ever seen. And when it's done, it will aim it at us...and then Yafutoma."

"Fina." Vyse struggled to keep his voice level. "How do we stop it?"

The Silvite blinked slowly. "You kill it." She answered. "You kill it before it finishes whipping that storm to full strength."

Vyse exhaled. "Okay. Then let's kill it." He looked to Lawrence and Don. "Both of you. Stay at the helm. How bad is this going to get, Fina?"

"You remember the Southern Ocean? Typhoon Alley?" Fina asked him, dark humor glittering in her blue eyes. "Like that. But ten times worse."

Vyse took her hand in his and squeezed it. Now the worry made sense. He knew full well how Fina hated the howling winds of the Southern Ocean. "Then it's a good thing we're flying in ten times the ship we were back then." He held her hand and kept his face locked tight, smiling at her, feeding her hope. He didn't stop until she finally answered him back with a smile of her own, then reached out for Aika's hand. His red-haired lover had sweat on her forehead, but she mustered a smile as well as she took Fina's hand and then his, and he spent a moment to revel in the warmth of their hands, and how their fingers all intertwined. "You girls have one more charge left in you?"

"If you help." Aika said.

"I'm right here." He promised Aika and Fina, squeezing their hands tight. "I'm not going anywhere. We do this together. Enrique?"

"Yes, Captain Vyse?" The exiled prince said. Vyse let go of Aika's hand as they crowded in around the charging pedestals and reached for his arm, tugging him into their circle. "Ah. Right. Myself as well."

"We're all running on fumes here, Enrique." Vyse told him, as he took up position between Fina on the right feeder line and Aika on the left. "None of us can do it alone."

Enrique's hand patted his shoulder once before he grabbed Aika's hand off of the left pedestal, held it in his right, and set his left hand down on the polished surface. He looked to Vyse and nodded. "None of us have to."

There it was. The absolute faith and trust that Enrique had in him, the bond of friendship and adopted brotherhood that made his breathing hitch. Why did fortune smile on him so much, that he should have two women he loved beyond his own life that loved him just as fiercely? What had he done in this life or the one before that had arranged to make Enrique his trusted lieutenant and battle brother?

Vyse drew in a breath and let his power flow out through his hands, felt the familiar tang of Fina's power and Aika's fire and the crackling web of Enrique's own aura; blue and red and silver and yellow, all of their spiritual reserves down to the dregs on their own. But together?

Together, as the trust and familiarity that their magic had for each other let their strength blend and flow freely through their linked arms and hands and down into the ship, the strength of four people might just be enough.

Fina let out a soft giggle, spurred on by some thought of hers.

"What is it, Miss Fina?" Enrique asked.

"Your princess did magic." She teased him, and Enrique blushed before he closed his eyes.

"She's not _my_ princess." He weakly argued.

"I'm pretty sure she'd like to be, though." Aika went on conversationally. "You should ask her what she wants after this."

"Assuming we live that long." Enrique murmured.

"We will." Vyse vowed, shutting off the attempts at deflection and reminding everyone on the bridge about the hopes he had in spite of the danger. "Blue Rogues never give up, Enrique. Remember?" Aika and Fina both hummed in agreement before they closed their eyes, and their auras brightened as they dove more deeply into the act of channeling their power.

"Yes, captain." Enrique conceded, and slipped into his own trance.

They charged up the cannon, and Bluheim built up his hurricane. It had become a race between titans.

* * *

The skies over Yafutoma had been clear when the fighting had started against the Armada, but now the white clouds had thickened to a dark and ominous gray and black, widened until vast swaths of the sky were covered. And the wind…

The _Delphinus_ vibrated and rattled underfoot, and Tikatika's voice from the lookout tower was a shade short of terrified. _"It's getting too windy and dangerous for me up here again! I'm going back down and closing the hatch!"_

"Orders, sir?" Don yelled over his shoulder, as he and Lawrence stood side by side, each taking half of the wheel to keep the ship steady as it bucked under the winds. Vyse could hear them all speaking, as he kept enough of himself away from the thrum and the pulse of his magic flowing into the ship's heart.

"Tell Tikatika to report to Ilchymis and the damage teams. There's nothing more he can do for us up there." Vyse said, not a tremor in his voice. How was he so calm? How, by the Moons and the _Abyss_ was he so damn calm?!

He felt the gentlest of nudges against his magic and his mind from either side of him, and the feeling of a steady hand callused only by the hilt of a sword settle on his back. Not that any of them had moved, not that Enrique _could_ actually touch him, daisy-chained as they were to the moonstone feeder lines, but he'd still felt them. Aika, and Fina, and Enrique, giving him their strength and their support. Keeping him calm and settled so he could be the even-keeled captain that his crew needed now. _Right now._

_**'You find people willing to share the burden with you.'**_ Damn his father, years later and the old man's advice was still paying dividends.

"Damn, the whole ship's fighting me." Lawrence hissed.

"Steady on, boy." Don told the younger helmsman. "Steady on. You're not wrangling the wheel on your own."

"Thank the Moons for that. You're something else, old man."

"The pride of the Valuan Navy, I was." Don laughed harshly. "These Armada scum don't know what real sailing is." Astounding that the two were suddenly so friendly. Lawrence had always been standoffish, professional and cool. The need of the battle had his two helmsmen standing side by side, keeping the ship steady and balanced so the winds didn't send it tumbling. And there was plenty of opportunity for that. He could feel the ship trembling, hear the groans of the metal as the gale-force winds grew even stronger and buffeted it. "We're...not going to be able to hold it, though! The _Delphinus_ won't be able to fly against these winds!" Don rasped out for Vyse's benefit.

In spite of the weariness of constant magic use, in spite of the adrenaline of a day's worth of boarding actions, ship battles, and a fight against a creature with godlike powers, Vyse somehow found enough strength to muster a quick laugh.

"Then don't." Vyse instructed, reaching to the moonstone reservoir at the ship's heart. It was close to full again, so close. But not there yet, and as their energy waned, the charge was building slower and slower. "You both know what to do. Don't fly _against_ the wind. Fly _with _it."

There were two spans of a breath where Vyse waited for them to catch on. Bluheim was conjuring a hurricane large enough to smash Yafutoma to floating rubble, and what was a hurricane but a typhoon by another name? They knew how to handle those, if they would stop and _think_ about the tales Vyse had told them of his journey through the Southern Ocean. They had everything they needed.

"Oh, shit. Of _course._ Why didn't I see it?" Lawrence finally exclaimed.

"See what?"

"We ride the whirlwind. Like in Typhoon Alley, how Vyse showed me how to do it. We ride the current and build up speed and then we break loose and fire our shot."

"And the angle?" Don demanded. "That beast's still high up above us! We'll never reach that altitude! How much of a tilt in our attitude can the _Delphinus _take?"

Vyse knew the answer, of course. It was his ship and Aika had made sure to drill the performance and safety tolerances into his head. "Turret locking pins on the gravity mounts are rated at 30 degrees...but Aika said that we could conceivably reach 45 degrees before stresses to the struts approached critical failure." Before the turrets ripped free of their housings and smashed into the bridge and the superstructure, Vyse grimly reminded himself.

"Forty-five degrees." Don uttered incredulously. "Bleeding hells. I didn't think a ship could reach that steep of a grade if it wasn't sinking."

"Valua makes all the best toys." Vyse said. "And then we steal them."

**"They're shit at particle beam cannons." **Fina said, her voice thunderous with her power, and the way she so casually dismissed Valua's technical expertise caused a momentary disconnect before everyone on the bridge ended up laughing for the sheer lunacy of _needing_ to laugh, if only to break the tension. By the six Moons, Vyse loved his women.

"Okay. Okay, then." Lawrence swallowed, and then he and Don must have turned the wheel, because the strain on the hull eased off and the groaning began to dissipate, and even the howling faded. And they began to move very, very fast.

"Holy shit, holy _shiiiiiit!"_ Domingo screamed, probably gripping on to something for dear life. "This is the craziest thing I've ever been a part of!"

"Blue Rogues, Domingo!" Don laughed, the old Esperanzan somewhere between total insanity and the kind of lackadaisical confidence that was too often Vyse's trademark. "Sail the unknown! Fight the undefeated! Pull off stunts that everyone else would think was suicidal! We braved The Dark Rift, and you think _this_ is crazy? This is just another Moonday for us!"

There was thunder rolling in the clouds now, and raindrops spattered against the hull like buckshot because of the speeds they were traveling. Flashes of lightning burned the skies and seared Vyse's retinas even with his eyes closed.

"Moonstone Cannon ready!" Lawrence shouted out, and the four of them broke their connection with loud gasps. Enrique hit the ground on his hands and knees, and Fina and Aika, by far the powerhouses behind charging the cannon for **four times now** slumped into each other. Vyse grabbed them before they could hit the deck, and cradled them into his arms. The entire ship started to tilt as Lawrence and Don aimed the nose upwards and the hull started to groan again as the wind caught on the hinged hull that had swung open to let the cannon extend out.

"Hang on to something!" Don shouted, and the tilt became even more pronounced. There was no helping it, Vyse found himself sliding backwards with Enrique off of his side and the insensate girls held tight to his sides. He hissed as his feet gave out from under him, and he kicked with his boots to shove himself away from the consoles and the map table, which had nothing but hard edges. It was all hard edges.

"Cupil!" He shouted, as the angle of the ship's nose-up maneuver hit thirty degrees and kept on going. "Cupil, do something!" The little pet that Fina used as a weapon had never responded to anybody's command but Fina's, but Vyse was desperate. Maybe it was the desperation that made Cupil react, or the familiarity the transforming creature had with him as his master's lover. It flung itself off of Fina's wrist and puffed itself up, then flung itself behind them in the shape of a giant, inflated pillow. Vyse felt his back smash into Cupil's body a foot before he would have hit the railing next to the captain's chair, where Moegi slept safely strapped in. The creature belched out the air it had swallowed like a bellows, cushioning him and Enrique and most importantly the precious cargo Vyse was holding onto before any of them could be hurt. As Cupil finished deflating and took up position in a slow orbit over their heads, Vyse kept his tired eyes open and looked ahead. Or rather, he looked up and out through the window.

"The turn's fighting me!" Lawrence snapped.

"The spinners! Use the spinners and cut the port side propellors!" Don shouted, the two of them hanging on to the wheel for dear life as the deck was tipped so far back that they were crouched low for extra stability and footing. The desperate moves turned them into the current even more, until they were finally pointed in the direction of the center of the storm.

Through the dark clouds that they were trapped in, past the wild and whipping currents, Vyse could see the Gigas Bluheim hovering there at the eye of the storm it was making. It was a dark presence outlined by the flash of lightning, glowing from every part of its body that was still intact.

"What if we miss?!" Lawrence shouted over the noise of the storm. He wasn't speaking to his captain, Vyse realized. He was talking to Don. The old sailor who he was no longer afraid to turn to for advice. "We only have one shot!"

"You've got this." Vyse whispered at Lawrence, too tired to yell it out. He could barely hear himself say it over the noise. "You can do this."

"You're not going to miss!" Don yelled back at him. "You're a Blue Rogue, and **this is** **what you're paid for!"**

Vyse could see the targeting reticule displayed on the glass of the bridge. He could see how the wind was so forceful that there were _cracks_ starting to form in it. He watched as Lawrence's spine stiffened up and he gripped the wheel harder.

"Finger over the button, old man!" Lawrence screamed against the wind. "On my mark!"

Working in tandem, the old and the young put the ship into position for one last shot. Vyse held his breath and fought off the encroaching darkness of his exhaustion, and heard Lawrence scream the order. He saw Don smash his entire fist down on the red firing switch. He watched as the beam of unstoppable power shot from the heart of the _Delphinus_ like the divine lances of old. It burned a path through the storm and the clouds and the winds unbothered by any of them and kept on target as Lawrence guided the ship through the spin.

He saw it strike Bluheim high on its chest and along its neck, heard the terrible creature let out one final scream that was cut off abruptly...Saw its head, cleaved clean from a burned through stump, fall away from the rest of its writhing body.

Vyse felt his eyes flutter shut, and heard the sound of the summoned storm give out and begin to subside with its power source lost. The captain of the _Delphinus_ felt the warmth of Aika and Fina, safe in his arms, and smiled in relief. They had done it.

The _Delphinus_ had killed a god.

* * *

_Minister Kangan's Airship_

It defied common sense. It defied explanation. It defied What Should Be. He was Kangan Kurowei, the former chief advisor of Emperor Tokugawa, and this was to be his day! The day where all of his years of planning were to have paid off! The Tokugawa Dynasty had fallen! The Western barbarian invaders had been used as a tool, just as they had thought to use him as a puppet ruler. He had used them to crush any opposition to his rise to power while his own forces supplanted the loyalists. He had gotten them to believe that the four Westerners who had gotten away carried the Maga Sphere, and when reports of the Tenkou had begun to increase in number and resulted in a massive airship battle between the Yafutoman pirates and the barbarians, he had used the opportunity to fly out to Mount Kazai to awaken the great beast. The beast who summoned the Divine Wind, and with the Maga Sphere in hand, it was **his** to command, to control! The Emperor hadn't known of its existence, it had been a secret within his family for nearly the entire Tokugawa's dynasty after one of his ancestors had 'misplaced' one of the most ancient historical scrolls. The secret of the Kurowei family, used at just the right time and in just the right place.

It had worked, too. Bluheim had utterly _demolished_ the Westerners' ships and sent the survivors scattering, until only one ship of Western design stood between Bluheim and the fleeing Tenkou; the ship his son had been on. The ship that the Western pirates had arrived on.

The ship that the Western pirates must have retaken, for how else would it have been fighting against Valua's ships when Bluheim arrived? It had pained Kangan to think that his son had likely been killed, but he drove it out of his mind and ordered Bluheim to destroy it. He would have countless concubines as the new emperor, he would just sire more sons. And perhaps his next child might have some steel in its spine.

But after two devastating blows from that cursed blue metal ship, Bluheim had been hurt enough that it stopped listening to Kangan. The Maga Sphere had burned in his hand until he'd dropped it on the deck, and he'd fled even further from the battle, watching as the great winged beast that had been his _birthright_ to command conjured up a terrible storm. And even that hadn't been enough. That damn ship had flown into the storm, taken aim, and fired one last time.

It couldn't be happening. It wasn't _supposed to be like this._ But it was.

"No!" He screamed, as the winged beast's head plummeted down through the skies and careened into the abyss. The great Bluheim's body, however, still had enough wind in its wings to glide and pinwheel about, and its course took it back to Mount Kazai, back to its home. It crashed into the base of the mountain, digging up an enormous furrow of stone and soil before coming to a halt. "NO!" Kangan screamed again, and reached for the Maga Sphere on the deck. It was cool in his hands once more, colder than he remembered it being when he'd first stolen it away. "Get up!" He screamed into the sphere, for the beast was connected to it and had heard all of his commands before. "Get up, damn you! Get up and fight! I did not order you to die, you monster!" His fingers dug into the surface of the finely polished moonstone crystal, but the beast did not move. It could not move.

The Western pirates had killed it. The Valuans were gone. All of his plans and ambitions were ruined. It was so sloppy, coming up with machinations on the fly. He should have pressed the Yafutoman navy to hunt for them harder, as the Valuans had refused the request in the interests of shoring up their grip on Yafutoma City. He should have…

A shadow fell over his small ship, and Kangan jerked his head up and stared at the Tenkou's flagship, unmistakable with its two hulls. It was right on top of him, and leaping down from the rail…

Kangan stumbled two steps back as the exiled and disowned Daigo Tokugawa landed in front of him, the former prince's hand on the hilt of his sword and the promise of death burning in his eyes. "Minister Kurowei." Daigo said tightly. "Kangan. You would dare?! Leading a coup against my father and my beloved sister wasn't enough, you would unleash that _monster_ on your homeland? For your crimes against Yafutoma, I declare your life forfeit!"

"You have no power here!" Kangan snarled, wild in the madness of his defeat. "Your father is deposed! You were banished! I hold the Maga Sphere! The time of the Tokugawas is over! Bow to me, for…"

Daigo moved in a flash, and Kangan barely had time to raise his arm up in front of him. It did him no good. The sharpened blade at Daigo's side sliced through the limb and his neck, and then Kangan Kurowei said nothing more as his headless body slumped to the deck. His head rolled away from him. The Maga Sphere wobbled to Daigo's feet.

Daigo breathed out slowly, slashed his blade through the air to clean it of the thin layer of blood on its edge, and then slid it back into its scabbard. He took up the Maga Sphere, held it in his palm and looked up to the dissipating storm and the battered but triumphant metal ship that flew away from it.

"Well fought, my friends." He offered quietly to the wind, praying that his words might reach Vyse and his friends and dear Moegi also. The weight of the Maga Sphere was so heavy. It had been the catalyst for the upheaval of his homeland. And yet, for all the change that had come, the pain had brought a balm as well. Kangan was dead. The head of the conspiracy against his homeland was gone, and now all that was left was to clean out the rats that still scurried about in the halls of power. Assuming Kangan hadn't eliminated them already.

The relic of the Blue Moon was said to be the key to the royal line of succession in ancient times. Daigo took one look at it and found he had no desire at all in keeping it. It was no longer required. The time of the gods had passed.

Like Daigo had been, his homeland was strong enough to forge a new path forward without them.


	37. My Place Is With Him

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Thirty-Seven: My Place Is With Him**

Laurette didn't remember her parents, they had died when she was four, after all. She knew vaguely that her father had been a sailor and that her mother had served as a cook and nurse. Some of the others would mention that every so often when they weren't entirely in their cups and were more whimsical than dead drunk. She wondered if they had loved her sometimes. The rest of the time, she wondered if it even mattered.

Laurette spent her entire life growing up in Esperanza, and was raised almost entirely by her 'big sister' Fatima. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good, either. And Laurette always felt like she should be doing more than helping Fatima with the cooking and the cleaning, or keeping their small little shack relatively tidy. She felt like she _could_ be doing more. What, exactly, she didn't know.

She grew up as a gangly, long-limbed skinny rail of a girl with a mop of red hair that refused to cooperate with her. Everyone spoke a language that was either Low Valuan or Mid-Ocean tradespeak depending on who she asked, but Fatima and the few merchants who came to trade with the people of Esperanza spoke another language, Nasrian, which was more lyrical and had an entirely different cadence to it. Fatima probably would have gone forever without speaking more than a choice word here or there if Laurette hadn't begged her sister to teach her the rest, but she could understand why Fatima was always so sad when she did. It must have been hard to be reminded of a home and a mother you weren't sure you'd ever see again, or that you weren't even certain would ever _want_ to see you again.

By the time Laurette was eleven, she'd seen men drink themselves into oblivion, or suicide by leaping off the edge of the city into the abyss far below or blowing their heads off with rusted flintlock pistols and rifles. By the time she was eleven, she'd seen that everyone else in Esperanza was old, and getting older, and was worn down by more than their years. She got used to not seeing smiles, not even from her big sister Fatima.

By the time she was eleven, Laurette's first education had showed her the truth of the world. It was a mess, and there was nothing anyone could do - or was willing to do - to change it.

It would be another 13 years before a massive metal ship of blue and silvery steel would fly into Esperanza's harbor, 20 years after the town was abandoned and forgotten, before someone challenged that preconception. But then, that was something that Blue Rogues excelled at, she would come to learn.

* * *

Some had been reluctant or scornful of Vyse's offer to join his crew, take the Oath, and fly into and _beyond_ the Dark Rift. Laurette, though, had leapt at the chance, much to Fatima's worried exasperation.

_'That rift killed your parents, girl. Are you so eager to see it finish the job of ending your family line?'_

Her wearied arguments fell to the wayside quickly enough when Captain Vyse's crew came ashore with the Valuan Armada blockading the harbor, and instead of worrying, they instead fed and tended to the Esperanzans, providing medicine and care that left them all stunned. All of it without demanding payment or servitude. All of it freely given. Others found themselves now echoing Laurette's defiant cry to leave this open grave behind and at least _try_ for something better. Old Man Daniels and Jenkins were more vocal than most, but between the free food, company in the form of other people _besides_ crusty Nasrian merchants trying to squeeze them for their last gold coin, and the medical checkups, the tide quickly turned. Laurette didn't understand Vyse and his Blue Rogues, she couldn't fathom what force drove them to be the way they were, but she was drawn to it. It was different. Through them, she suddenly felt hope and a growing sense of purpose. She felt that she could be doing more than cooking and cleaning and just biding her time, waiting to die.

The morning of the fateful duel between the _Delphinus_ and the Valuan Armada parked off the shore, Laurette was one of the first to get on board the last patrol boat that Jenkins and the other sailors had been working to fix up. Her heart pounded in her chest as she stayed in the wheelhouse, sitting on the floor with her knees bunched up to her chest and trying not to cry. She could have run back to the shack she and Fatima called home, could have pleaded with her big sister to come with her one last time, but she didn't dare leave the patrol boat and risk having it leave Esperanza without her. She was scared of losing Fatima, the only family she really had what with Daniels and Jenkins being more like distant uncles who were useless most of the time. It was nothing but sheer relief when Fatima had come racing onto the ship, crying her name, and they met halfway through the wheelhouse, collapsing on their knees as they hugged tightly.

"I'm sorry." Laurette said, squeezing her arms tightly around the dark-skinned Nasrian cook. "I'm sorry. I had to. I couldn't…"

"I know." Fatima shushed her, her voice hoarse as she stroked a hand through Laurette's short red hair. "We're all coming, Laurette. We're _all_ coming. I knew you would be here."

"I was so afraid I'd never see you again." Laurette got out, and collapsed into sobs. "I'm scared."

Fatima laughed at that, a creaky sound that twinged at Laurette's memory. She hadn't laughed like that in years. The Nasrian woman leaned back and wiped the tears off of Laurette's face and smiled.

"You still were here first. You can be scared, but don't ever forget that you're brave. Braver than the rest of us knew how to be. You could have left without me. You'd still be fine."

"I still need you." Laurette mumbled, hiding her face in Fatima's shoulder like she used to do when she was a girl.

"You don't, _Malgranda."_ Fatima said, kissing the top of her head. "But I am here anyways." They got up and walked to the window and stood side by side as the rest of Esperanza's inhabitants squeezed on board, watching the _Delphinus_ beat back the Armada almost effortlessly. They took off when the _Delphinus_ was dueling with the _Auriga_ and everyone cheered when the last Valuan ship flew a flag of surrender, and not long after the _Delphinus_ pulled away, their tiny little boat caught up to the great pirate vessel and landed awkwardly on the foredeck.

Gripping her big sister's hand tightly, Laurette stepped down from the patrol boat and took one last look at Esperanza, vanishing in the distance. The only home she'd ever known, a place of squalor and disappointment and a slow death. She breathed in and out, then turned and looked towards the Dark Rift, looming closer than she'd ever seen it before.

"I want to do something incredible." She said softly.

"What, little one?" Fatima asked her, as they followed the others into the _Delphinus_ to get squared away.

"I don't know yet." Laurette admitted.

But Vyse had showed her, showed them, that maybe the world could change after all.

Laurette could certainly try to change her stars.

* * *

It was during their voyage through the Dark Rift that Laurette began to figure out just what she was truly capable of. She certainly learned how she could dress, at least. No more was she stuck with the sleeveless shirts and old billowing knee-length leggings that had been her constant companions since after she was ten years old, the only clothes that Fatima had been able to acquire and tailor to fit her. The crew of the ship that she and the other Esperanzans found themselves on were a diverse bunch, and came from places that she had only ever heard of from the wistful accounts of the other townsfolk...and even a place that she had never heard of before. For two among the crew of the _Delphinus_ didn't hail from Valua, or Nasr, or the smaller islands and places around Mid-Ocean, but from an entire continent known as Ixa'taka! Their skin was was darker than the lighter skin of those who hailed from Valua or the islands beneath the silver moon, more like the tans and skin tones that she'd seen Fatima and some of the Nasrian merchants with. They spoke Mid-Ocean tradespeak well enough, but there was another language that Laurette heard them use the first two days that she overheard them in the galley as she was helping out with refilling mugs and collecting dishes. It was as unlike Nasrian as Nasrian had been unlike Low Valuan, and it was captivating.

Or at least, enough of a distraction as she busied herself with assisting with the inventory manifests. Osman had quickly picked up on her usefulness, as Laurette's skills in helping to keep Fatima's inn properly stocked with accurate orders and requisitions easily doubled in a shipboard setting, and Fatima was busy in the kitchen with Polly. Everyone not involved with the actual sailing of the ship was quick to find tasks even beyond what assignments Enrique (The honest to _fucking Moons Prince of Valua!)_ handed out. The Esperanzans, the sailors who had seen their life and their ambitions crushed before Vyse came and restored the hope of them, were all especially tetchy with it, and Laurette found herself distancing herself from the other men and the too few women who she'd known all her life. Their pain, their worries, were too familiar and cloying. She found herself wanting something new.

So on the third day of their journey through the Dark Rift, while Don Juan Artours and Daniels and Jenkins kept the others focused on the job of staying alive, Laurette sat down across from Merida while the Ixa'takan dancer was on one of her breaks, and met the younger woman's surprised eyes with her own steely ones.

"Teach me to speak your language." She said, pausing before adding a hesitant, "Please?" Merida had stared at Laurette for a time, then laughed and nodded, her ponytail of silvery gray hair bouncing behind her. Perhaps the Ixa'takan girl was only humoring her. Or maybe she thought that the women of the crew needed to stick together. Regardless, Merida spoke, and Laurette wrote and learned.

Ixa'takan proved to be a fascinating language, nuanced in that aside from unfamiliar syllables it also used guttural, glottal stops and sounds. It was vastly different than the lyrical quality of Nasrian and the familiar cadence of Low Valuan/Mid-Ocean tradespeak. High Valuan, which she'd learned bits and pieces of from Don as a girl during the few moments he was sober and hurting from remembering his own lost parents, had always felt like outdated living poetry. In trying to write it down in a fresh journal, Laurette also learned of Ixa'taka's culture, and one of the engineers, a young man about Merida's age named Hans, helped to fill in the missing details of Ixa'taka's history that Merida had no clue of.

The grand quest that Vyse and the two women who were his closest friends were on had been quickly shared with the Esperanzan crew after they had taken the Oath of the Blue Rogues. She knew that they and Prince Enrique were out to collect powerful relics of a lost age to prevent the Valuan Empire from gathering them first. She knew that the ambitions of Valua's leadership was nothing less than the complete subjugation of the world. But it was something else entirely to hear the details of their achievements and their struggles from firsthand witnesses. It was something else to hear that the country her parents had come from had become an Empire that had enslaved Merida's people and used them as forced labor to harvest the wealth of moonstones from their sacred mountain. It was something else to know that the diversity displayed so freely aboard the _Delphinus,_ with its crew of people from every corner of Mid-Ocean and Ixa'taka, was not the norm. Nasrad, the capital of Nasr, had been burned to its foundations and the Nasultan had been killed during the collapse of his palace. And for all that Vyse and his friends had done, had anything truly slowed down Valua's ambitions or expansion? Had they done any damage directly to them? Had Vyse done anything aside from paint an even larger target on his back? Laurette kept her doubts to herself, though. Everyone was on edge in the Dark Rift, and it was easy to put fears aside to focus on the work of studying Ixa'takan. She was passable in it after close to a week's worth of study, but a long ways from conversational.

Then, after a ship's battle with an enormous creature who lived inside the unnatural space, the _Delphinus_ did what an entire sponsored expedition of less powerful ships had failed to. They continued sailing east and emerged on the other side of the Dark Rift, and found more world beyond it.

It had not been the world's edge, after all.

They made landfall on one of the larger, barren islands on the other side and planted the expedition flag that Don had recovered at the same time as the Esperanzans had rescued another sailor friend of theirs, lost and thought dead for 20 years. The ceremony had been Vyse's idea, and he and everyone else was somber as they left a marker and made memorial for the lost who had died never seeing the other side.

Laurette stared at the flag and dug her nails into her palms, and tried to think of her mother and father. She tried to think of what they had looked like, and found herself drawing a blank. They were nothing more than a nebulous concept now. They had lived, they'd had her, and then they had died.

After the ceremony, everyone piled aboard their ships, though Laurette could see Lawrence lingering behind to speak with Vyse and Aika and Fina and Enrique, the leaders of both the ship and their crew.

"Come, Laurette." Fatima urged her, tugging on her arm.

"One moment. Please." Laurette said softly, and the Nasrian woman who'd hailed from Maramba let go and backed off.

Laurette kept looking at the flag of the expedition that had taken the lives of her mother and father. What would they have said if they were here? What would she want to say to them, if she had the chance?

It was all full of empty thoughts and platitudes, feelings that would be too forced, and not truly organic.

Laurette exhaled. _If things had been different, they would have been different. It hasn't been a good life, but I was fed, and clothed, and nobody ever hurt me or abused me. But life in Esperanza wasn't good. I would have died there, if not for Captain Vyse and his crew and the others on the ship. I don't remember you, but I want to believe that you cared. I want to believe you wanted better things for me._

"Just watch." She said to herself and to whatever spirits might be listening, nodding at that frayed flag moving in the nighttime breeze. "We've achieved your dream. Now I get to figure out what mine is."

* * *

_Delphinus_

_Dining Room/Galley_

_175 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The skies under the Blue Moon, and the rumored lands that were under them remained one of the key sources of gossip for the crew of the _Delphinus_ when they weren't placing bets on whether Captain Vyse was dating Chief Engineer Aika or Miss Fina. Laurette had placed a bet herself (On Aika, redheads had to stick together after all) and left the wild and often whimsical dreaming about what they might find to the more imaginative. She sat down with her meal at a table which had a few open seats that just happened to place her next to Kalifa and Miss Osman, neither of whom got on all that well with many of the others. Osman had a reputation as a stuffy Nasrian moneylender and merchant she was still fighting against, and Kalifa was very good at setting people on edge with that cryptic air of _knowing_ that all fortunetellers gave off.

"Did you get a final tally on the spices taken from Spice Island, girl?" Osman asked Laurette, starting off without so much as a one word greeting. "I'd like to know that we'll have some additional merchandise to sell, the next time we make port."

"Why hello, Miss Osman. Lovely to see you too." Laurette deadpanned, tearing her small loaf in two and dipping the edge into her vegetable stew. "The Captain said to only take a little, so we settled for about a dozen plants of each variety. Miss Fina and Dr. Ilchymis spent most of yesterday evening getting them transplanted into our ship's garden. Our first priority will be in getting them to grow and repopulate properly, but Polly and Fatima took some for tonight's dinner. Fatima's excited to try making her mother's kabal skewers again."

Kalifa cackled. "It has been a while since I have had a proper kabal skewer. Not since I left Maramba, really. There was this one old woman who tended a shop there, and she has always made the best. It will be interesting to see if your adopted sister Fatima's seasoned meat will prove its equal." She finished up her own meal and moved the tray to the side before producing a notebook and pulling out a quill pen. Laurette frowned at it.

"What do you have there? That's not your ledger." Laurette knew the look of that ledger, even for as secretive as Kalifa tried to be with it when Captain Vyse or Aika or Fina were around.

Kalifa smiled secretively. Or perhaps that was just the fortuneteller's regular smile, enigmatic tended to be the woman's default setting. "It is not." She opened it up and held it so Laurette could stare at it. "I have been considering recording the stories of the crew."

Laurette frowned and looked over to Osman, and the rubenesque woman in her favored yellow dress and hat raised her eyebrows over her glasses as she turned away from Kalifa to exchange a puzzled look with the red-haired woman.

"All right. Why?" Laurette ventured carefully.

"The Moons told me that what this ship and the people on it are doing will be something momentous. Something worth remembering." Kalifa explained, setting her notebook back down in front of her and setting out an inkwell. "Such things create legends. I would see the truth of this quest remembered, and not the wild stories of myth." The fortuneteller tipped her head, and the glare coming from her thick glasses lessened as they dipped forward.

Smoky green eyes stared into Laurette's, and the red-haired woman found herself transfixed.

"Will you tell me your story, Laurette?" Kalifa asked softly, not moving her head even a bit. Laurette thought about it in the space where she couldn't breathe, not out of fear but from wonder, and nodded. Then Kalifa smiled and tipped her head back up and the glare from her glasses hid her eyes again, and Laurette shuddered and drew in a breath.

Kalifa went to the second page of the blank notebook and dipped her quill pen into the ink. "Whenever you are ready, child of Esperanza."

Laurette steadied herself by eating a little more of her meal and swallowing a glass of watered down ale to clear her throat. "I don't remember my parents, but they were part of the expedition to try n' sail through the Dark Rift. After they were lost in the attempt, it was Fatima that…"

* * *

_Yafutoma City_

_Harbor Merchant's Row_

_182 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

There were lands beyond the Dark Rift, all right. There was an entire _continent_ beyond it, and a country (Another kingdom really, but they called themselves an empire) called Yafutoma. The _Delphinus_ was docked in their harbor, the crown princess was on board being given a tour of it all, and there was so much to see. Not just the people, who were all of them homogenous in their hair color and their mannerisms, but in their buildings and their wooden ships and their food.

And their _language._ By the Moons, Laurette had thought herself talented for being bilingual in Low Valuan/Tradespeak and Nasrian and for learning the rudiments of Ixa'takan. But the Yafutoman tongue? The words were all different, there weren't any loan words and the sentence construction was all backwards compared to what she was used to! When Laurette found out that Fina was fluent in the ancient tongue of the Blue Civilization, she had bothered the Silvite for an hour's worth of lessons that she hoped would be useful. It didn't take her long to realize that they weren't. She'd pestered Princess Moegi for a primer in the modern derivations when the Yafutoman royal had come by the hold, enough to muster greetings and farewells and basic questions, with the addition of a very important sentence as well; _'I am still learning your language, can you name things when we point to them?'_

Osman was clueless with the Yafutoman tongue, but the merchant's desire to trade their wares with the people had thrust Laurette into the forefront. Even with her (very) limited knowledge of Yafutoman, she was by far their best asset in the absence of Fina or Moegi. And since Moegi was still being given the ten-pence tour by Marco and Fina was off with Vyse and Aika and Enrique to retrieve the long-lost Blue Moon Crystal from its presumed resting place…

"You! You buy!" Another merchant pulling a small two-wheeled cart full of fresh produce and bags of rice (But much higher quality rice than anything Laurette had ever seen come through Esperanza) yelled at her as she and two of the sturdier Esperanzan sailors made their way through the bustling marketplace, where fresh skyfish (And not just skyfish, but _actual fish_ as well!) was being unloaded off of ships along with other wares from distant, smaller islands in the small little empire. "You buy many!"

_"Soon!" _Laurette hollered back at the man in Yafutoman. _"Must get money first!"_

_"Ah, you speak Yafutoman! Not very well yet, but…"_

_ "I am learning! Please for your patience!"_ Laurette countered hastily, which got a laugh from many of the native citizens around them, some of it from surprise that there was a Westerner who could speak their language even a little bit (Garbled and horribly accented as it must have sounded to them) and some from how she was trying to politely get away before the man could shove a cabbage into her face.

"Huh. What was he saying?" Jenkins asked cautiously.

"Wanted to sell us something. I told him to wait." Laurette told the old sailor. "We don't exactly have a lot of gold in the ship's coffers on hand, so before we go buying, we need to start selling." She went quiet and listened in to the other sellers on the street as they shouted prices, and as their customers countered with smaller bids in a bargaining war.

"Selling what? The stores we've got on the ship?"

"Yes." Laurette nodded for her companions, sighting an actual storefront with a complicated cloth sign hanging above it. "Osman gave me a list." She hefted the small bag she was carrying. "And I brought along samples. Supply and demand, Osman called it. What is common in Mid-Ocean will be exotic here. So, we get as much as we can for what we're able to sell off, and then buy the local wares cheaply to restock the ship."

"You make it sound so easy, 'Retta." Jenkins muttered, scratching at the line of his forehead beneath his striped cap.

"Oh, it's not easy." Laurette said. "You can get fleeced if you're not careful."

"So how will you keep from getting fleeced here?" The other sailor asked her curiously.

Laurette paused and turned around to the two old sailors and gave them a wry smirk. "Because what else were the Nasrian merchants doing to us in Esperanza all my life aside from fleecing us? I learned what to look out for. Just like Big Sis Fatima did. Neither of us were ever so desperate for alcohol that we made poor trades, we never would have been able to keep the tavern open if that were the case. Just keep looking serious, stay quiet, and watch."

"Gonna put on a show for us, then?" Jenkins chuffed, smiling a bit. Laurette smiled back, turned around, and headed inside of the store.

A middle-aged Yafutoman man with a slight bald spot was at the counter, writing on a scroll as she came inside. He glanced up briefly as she pushed her way past the beaded curtain, then did a double take when he caught sight of the color of her hair.

_"Ah, Westerners!" _He said in Yafutoman, coughing once before trying out some very mangled Mid-Ocean tradespeak. "Happy come! Buy many?"

Laurette smiled at his attempt. _"Greetings. We come from metal ship. Have things to sell. I am still learning, can you talk slow?"_

The man blinked at her stilted words. _"Ah, you speak Yafutoman. Yes. You want to sell? Show me."_

"He wants to see." Laurette said softly for the benefit of Jenkins and the other sailor with her, and dug into her satchel. She'd brought along half a dozen items that Osman had wagered would be highly sought after trade goods. The first…

Laurette set a small leather pouch on the counter between them, and undid the drawstring. Immediately, the scent of aromatic Nasrian spices filled the air, and the man took in a sniff before leaning in.

_"No cough."_ Laurette warned him, placing a hand over the bag's opening. _"Is powder. Spice."_

_"Spice? What - spice?"_ The merchant asked, and Laurette frowned, having missed the middle part. He blinked and repeated it, slower. _"What kind of spice?"_

"Ah." Laurette said, filling in the missing words. She put her thumb and forefinger into the bag and pinched a small amount of it, then held it out to him. _"Please show hand?"_

The merchant blinked a little at her pronunciation. _"Hold out my hand, you mean?" _He said, extending his arm and putting his palm facing up. _"Hold out my hand."_ He repeated. _"Or, your hand."_

Laurette smiled at him. _"Thank you. Yes. Hold out __**your**__ hand."_ She dropped the pinch of spice into it. _"Taste this. Is western spice."_ She nodded. "Cinnamon." She waited for him to wince, because cinnamon was an aromatic that smelled wonderful and tasted bitter on its own. In Mid-Ocean, though, it was prevalent in many breakfast pastries and desserts, and Nasrian stews.

Sure enough, he sniffed at it and tried to hide the pleasure it evoked in his nostrils, then dipped his tongue into it and immediately made a face. Laurette smiled as he coughed and reached for a small water jug. _"Is good with other things."_ She said, producing a tiny glass vial of sugar. She poured out a tiny amount of the granules into his hand and added another pinch of cinnamon onto it, then nodded at him to repeat it. He did so hesitantly, but this time, the only face he made was one of surprise. _"You like?"_

"Much how?" The man demanded.

"How much." Laurette suggested.

_"Yes, how much?"_ The merchant asked impatiently. _"Much you have?"_

Ah, he wanted to know the quantity, not the price she wanted for it. Well, she'd gotten her hopes up for nothing. She closed up the bag and hefted it in her hand, then set it down on the counter and held out ten fingers. Closed them. Opened them again. Three times in all, enough to give him an estimate of about thirty bags' worth, or close to 20 pounds. They had thirty, but Polly had threatened Osman if she tried to sell anything in the galley's immediate stores.

The merchant hummed. _"I take all. Two hundred Ryo."_

Laurette closed her eyes, remembering back to the prices that had been shouted out in the open-air market for various meats and vegetables and grains, and especially the ones given for salt and other seasonings. Then she upped it for the distance and rarity, and the fact that they'd found only a few cinnamon trees, and thus, cinnamon bark, on Spice Island. And of a slightly different variety than the kind they had ready for trade, which was Nasrian fare.

_"One thousand Ryo."_

_"One thousand?!"_ The merchant exclaimed, quickly shaking his head. _"Too much. Four hundred."_

Laurette mustered a laugh. She knew exactly how much Osman had spent in buying the cinnamon out of Nasrad, if she didn't at least make double what the merchant had spent, the woman would be a right nuisance for days about it. _"Nine hundred."_

_"Still too much. Five hundred Ryo!"_

_ "Eight hundred Ryo." _Laurette said, and held up a hand. _"And you bid first on other things we have."_

The merchant frowned. _"Other things. Worse things, perhaps."_

Laurette hummed and dug into her satchel, and produced a single rounded moonstone, a gleaming crystal that rolled in her palm and gleamed with ruby light. A red moonstone focus, which carried the power of the red moon for those who were capable of magic. _"Better things."_

The merchant inhaled sharply at the sight before he froze and realized he'd revealed his true thoughts. He looked up from the moonstone focus to Laurette's face in time to see her smile, and he wilted in defeat. _"Eight hundred."_ He agreed with a weary nod of his head. _"What else you have, westerner?"_

"Laurette." She said, and he tilted his chin towards her. _"My name. _Laurette."

_"Ah, so. Ro-ret."_ The merchant repeated, stumbling over the unfamiliar syllables and glottal sounds to that of his own people. _"I am Netaka."_ He bowed his head slightly, and Laurette repeated the bow, noting after her time with Moegi and in observing others that it was a sign of respect between equals, or from a lower-class citizen to one higher.

Laurette held out her hand. _"We westerners greet this way." _She said, and when he unsurely stuck his own hand out, she clasped it in hers and shook it. _"Good to meet you. Netaka."_

Netaka huffed and smiled back at her. _"Yes. Good to meet you. Ro-ret."_ He pulled his hand back. _"Now. What else you have?"_

The other samples from her bag were brought out, and the bargaining continued.

* * *

_186 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The return of Captain Vyse and the rest of the ship's top leadership had returned in triumph with the Blue Moon Crystal in tow. The particulars were something that Laurette hadn't had the time to determine, as her continued trading had earned a vast amount of gold for the ship's coffers and Osman's grudging approval. The cinnamon, both ground and dried in the small rolls of bark, had been the first sale, but the merchant Netaka had also bought up their trading supply of dried and pitted dates as well as a few of the red moonstone foci that Osman had procured in Nasrad. After Netaka had found his coffers emptied of their version of gold coins called _Ryo,_ Laurette had gone on to make additional deals with other merchants for the bolts of Nasrian cloth, a few more red moonstones, Mid-Ocean alcohol, and the curiosity of four electric lamps from storage with yellow moonstone power cells that the Yafutomans had never seen. And her study of Yafutoman grew even more, so much so that when she found occasion to meet with Princess Moegi at meals before Vyse had returned, they were able to make even greater strides towards Laurette becoming a hair short of conversational in it. The work of restocking the ship she had planned to begin in earnest the morning after the great feast that the Yafutoman emperor had held in their honor, and eager to begin the work, Laurette had taken up the invitation from one of the friendlier merchants she'd met in her dealings to stay with his wife and their children in his home, so she would not have quite so far to walk between the _Delphinus_ and the warehouses.

Laurette woke up early in the morning, having not imbibed so heavily of the rice wine that the Yafutomans favored. The sun wasn't even up fully yet, and she smiled and made her way past the thin mattresses on the floor where the two girls and the one boy belonging to Satori and his wife Nari were still sleeping. With a gentle hand, she slipped the sliding wooden door open and stepped out into the brisk morning air, an invigorating coolness unlike anything she'd ever felt living in Esperanza. She had her eyes closed as she inhaled and tightened the heavy, ankle-length robe that Nari had given to her last night after Laurette complained of how cold she got sometimes. Compared to the rugged dry heat of Esperanza, Yafutoma had been chilly, and the winter coverlet was wonderful. When she wore it, the cool air here wasn't something that made her shiver, and instead turned it into a bracing presence.

She was smiling up until she opened her eyes and looked out over the horizon, and then promptly froze when she saw the harbor.

And all the ships closing in around it. Metal ships, like the ones she'd seen in Esperanza. _Valuan_ ships.

"Oh, hell." Laurette whispered, and whirled back inside. The Armada was here. _The Armada was here._ Aboard the _Delphinus,_ the crew would be sleeping off last night's party, and so far as she knew, Vyse and the other three were still at the palace, staying in the guest quarters. Was there anything she could do? Anything at all to raise the alarm?!

Nothing. There was nothing she could do. Her heart sunk at that. Her friends, the rest of the crew would all be captured and arrested, and…

So would she. She stood there, stuck to the spot until Nari came out to join her, yawning as she did so. The woman started a soft and sleepy greeting until she also saw the ships and cut herself off with a yelp.

The presence of Nari, a mother with three little ones and a husband who too often got himself into hot water because of his forthrightness if Nari's stories were correct, threw the situation and what she needed to do into stark relief for Laurette.

_"By the moon, what __**is**__ that?"_ Nari uttered. Laurette blinked twice before realizing she'd heard and interpreted the entire question correctly without any gaps.

"Trouble." She muttered, and clenched her hands into fists. She switched to Yafutoman right after. _"Nari, I need you to listen to me."_ She waited, but Nari didn't make a sound, and she turned to find the dark-haired woman still gaping up at the sky, her mouth opening and closing silently. _"Nari!"_ Laurette hissed, grabbing the woman's arm and shaking it. That finally jolted the mother back to herself. _"Nari, listen to me. Those ships are not good. Those ships are __**Valuan.**__ They come from the lands under the yellow moon, and they want to rule the world."_

Nari blinked rapidly. _"You are... you are saying those are the people that your ship and your captain fight against?"_

Laurette made a face. _"Everyone will still be sleeping. They will capture our ship. They will capture our crew. They will probably capture Vyse as well. I need you to listen. Do what I tell you. Exactly. Yes?"_

Nari swallowed loudly, but nodded. _"I am listening."_

Laurette breathed in to steady herself. _"Inside, there is the bag of mine with money. Take it and hide it. Do not tell your husband where you put it, do not tell your children. They will come for me. If we live through this, I will need that money back for my people. If we don't...you will need it to survive. Valua takes everything it can."_

Nari shook her head. _"What will you do?"_

_"I will leave here and pretend that I came from the ship to buy things. They will find me and they will capture me."_ She reached up and touched her hair, red in a sea of black and immediately recognizable. _"But your family will be safe."_

Nari started to say something, stopped, and then her eyes misted over. She pulled Laurette into a clasping hug, the kind of gesture more common among Mid-Ocean people than Yafutomans. But among Yafutoman close family...it was not so unusual. Laurette, who knew what it meant to Nari, found her eyes burning from tears as well as she hugged back.

_"You live, Ro-ret. You come find us. I will make you grilled fish and stew until you cannot eat any more. My children will miss you."_

_"I will miss all of you."_ Laurette answered her roughly, and pulled away. She wrapped her heavy _kimono_ around herself and took off for the harbor marketplace, relying on the dark of the early morning and doing her best to ignore the twisting knots in her stomach.

An hour later, as she tried to keep from vomiting up the fruit-filled rice ball that she'd bought for breakfast, a patrol of Yafutoman soldiers, not Valuans, caught sight of her and shouted for her to not move as they raced to arrest her. She found herself being dragged off and handed over to the Valuan soldiers who had come into the city, and from there, she was taken aboard the _Delphinus_ and put into the holds with everyone else.

Nobody else had any idea of the coup that had happened in Yafutoma, but Laurette, who understood the language well enough to suss out the shouting and yelling and screaming she'd heard, passed it on to the rest of the crew. The Yafutoman emperor had been betrayed and taken. The former chief advisor to the jade throne now ruled at Valua's 'generosity.' And Admiral Belleza, a Valuan spymaster from what the others on the _Delphinus_ told her, had been responsible for it all.

She feared for her merchant friends and their families even more after that.

* * *

_Yafutoma Harbor_

_200 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Afternoon_

Laurette hadn't fought against Valua. Laurette couldn't fight at all, couldn't use magic, couldn't sail or navigate a ship. It was a miracle that she didn't get seasick, from the stories she heard of how Prince Enrique had required medications to tamp down his own nausea after spending most of his life on land instead of the skies. But she'd been shoved into the hold with the rest of the crew, and save for when she was helping Kalifa in ferrying meals and dirty plates between the ship's hold and to the galley where Polly and Robinson kept cooking up a storm, it had been a long period of captivity. There was only one crime that the Valuans could hold her for; signing on with the Blue Rogues, a known 'air pirate' organization. It had been two weeks of it, being interrogated briefly by Admiral Belleza who took a minor interest in Laurette's linguistic ability before she was dismissed out of hand as a noncombatant, a 'non-threat' who was sent back below with the others and never interrogated after. Valua had no interest in a young woman whose only contribution to the operations of the ship were as a merchant's runner and mouthpiece.

It hurt to be so dismissed and put out of mind even if she was equally relieved to not be targeted. There were too few women on the crew to begin with, and the old men from Esperanza were protective of her. Thankfully, none of the Valuan soldiers (Or the Yafutoman ones) did anything to truly accost her, and Laurette suspected that Admiral Belleza had a hand in it. At least, it seemed likely after the Yafutoman soldiers she passed by while delivering meals one day discussed how the 'female admiral' had gone ashore and stopped a full-on riot by shipping the brawnier male admiral back to the Armada, taking the word of the locals over her own men.

To the Valuans, she almost didn't exist for all the concern they gave over her. To the crew of the _Delphinus,_ she was more of an afterthought, someone they cared for but in the way one cared for a girl who was pretty to look at but had no particular skills or use beyond what they'd known her for doing all of her life. The combination was bitterly swallowed, even if it hurt less than the fear they all shared but never expressed over their eventual fates.

But then, after two weeks of being a prisoner and rotting away in the holds, there came a day of battle, a day of being rescued and of the crew capable of fighting taking back their ship. Laurette resigned herself to joining the fire brigade teams with little Pinta and little Marco, and they all found themselves pushed to their limits the same as their ship.

They killed a Gigas. _They killed a god._ And after she could stand again, the word came down from the bridge, from Prince Enrique, that the captain and Miss Aika and Miss Fina were incapacitated along with Princess Moegi, and they were sailing back to harbor to effect repairs and deal with the Valuans and betrayer Yafutomans who had sworn loyalty to the traitor Kangan and _could anybody on the crew speak Yafutoman because they desperately needed someone to coordinate?!_

That was how Laurette, the young red-haired woman that everyone had overlooked, found herself in the harbor with the _Delphinus_ hovering offshore and pointing its undamaged cannons and torpedo launchers menacingly inland. As the surviving loyalist naval vessels and Tenkou ships flew around the mighty warship who had been responsible for breaking the Valuan occupation and ending Kangan's bid for power, she stood on the shore and served as translator for the Blue Rogues who had volunteered for the duty of capturing any fugitive Valuan soldiers still in the city and the Tenkou forces who were with them. And also for the Yafutoman citizens themselves, who had been just as traumatized by the occupation and who took a great deal of convincing that it was all over.

"Right, listen up!" She shouted for the next group of Blue Rogues climbing off one of the skiffs ferrying people to and from the _Delphinus._ She pulled her dirtied blue winter kimono tighter around herself as the wind, still in a tizzy after Bluheim's aborted ultimate attack, kicked up again onshore. She pointed to a waiting group of Tenkou who had been directed to her position atop a trio of barrels full of packed and dried skyfish. "This lot's going to make a charge into the residential quarter of the city, and there's talk of foreigners who may be holed up there. So expect some door to door fighting!"

"Aye, missy!" One foolhardy Esperanzan sailor wheezed, giving her a wink as he clasped his rifle tighter to his chest. "We'll give 'em Armada bastards what for, just you watch!"

Laurette huffed and rolled her eyes. "Right, Jameson. I'm sure you will. But remember, we're here to _help,_ so that means you follow the Tenkou and you take their directions. And for the love of the Moons, try and come back alive, all of you!" The Blue Rogues all cackled, still riding high on their triumph over Bluheim and the now escaped Valuan Armada, and even offered her a salute. She turned to the Tenkou air pirates who supposedly served under Yafutoma's lost prince (And wasn't _that_ a fortunate bit of news, that Princess Moegi had a brother and she wouldn't be facing this mess all alone) and switched from Mid-Ocean tradespeak to the language she still wasn't perfect in. _"They will go with you, and help. You know important words, yes? Follow? _Follow? _Attack?_ Attack? _Defend?"_

One of the Tenkou, a wiry man with gloves that sprouted long slashing claws on them, broke out laughing and waved her off. "We know some. They safe with us. _Just don't ask us to have a conversation with them during the fighting. After, though, I think we know enough to do some proper drinking together!"_

_"You have to live before you can even think about drinking!"_ Laurette snapped back at the Tenkou fighter, and a laugh rose up from the small band of half a dozen men that made her shake her head again. _"Go then. Yafutoma is not free yet!"_ The men went haring off with a shout from the claw-wearing Tenkou and the Blue Rogues following behind them, fixing bayonets to their weapons as they went.

She was tired and worn out and the exertions of the day had made her sweat clean through her clothes and the kimono she'd taken to wearing as an outer coat, and Laurette didn't even want to consider what kind of a crow's nest her hair had turned into. She was just glad that she'd kept to wearing her boots two weeks ago instead of the wooden sandals that the Yafutomans seemed to favor, because she doubted that her feet would be holding up as well in spite of it. Laurette sank down onto the lid of the first barrel of the three and sighed, still smelling the scent of fired gunpowder and hearing the sounds of a battle still raging further into the city. The harbor and the markets had been retaken, but further towards the royal palace, the fighting was still ongoing. The next group would be going there. In spite of everything that needed doing, though, there was a large part of her mind occupied with worry for the condition and well-being of the merchants she had come to know before the Valuan occupation. She was especially concerned for Nari and her three children and her husband…

_"Ro-ret!"_ A familiar voice caught her ear, and she turned her head about in time to see a merchant she knew well running towards her with a look of wild excitement. Satori!

_"Satori! You are alive!" _Laurette cried out, hopping down from her barrel and running towards the man. She caught another skiff flying in out of the corner of her eye, but put it out of her mind as she turned all of her attention to a much more deserving subject. _"Satori!" _The merchant laughed as he came closer, and stuck his arms out. She grabbed at his hands as they stood apart, him grinning at her while she stared back with newfound hope. _"Your family?"_

_"They are all safe. Nari warned me, told me what you had said. We did not think we would see you again. These __**Valuan**__ westerners...I was so afraid."_

Laurette laughed and pulled her hands back, rubbing at her eye. "You can't keep Captain Vyse or the Blue Rogues down. They just had to find help."

"Excuse me?" A polite voice sounded behind her. "Are you telling us where to go?"

"Yes, one moment, please." Laurette said, not even looking back at the speaker. She couldn't tear her eyes off of Satori. _"There's so much to do. Kangan's soldiers are still here, and there are Valuans who didn't run away. What do the people need? We cannot help all at same time, but…"_

"Excuse me. You _are_ the translator, yes?"

Laurette huffed and spun around, staring up (and up) at a taller Yafutoman man with a long curved sword strapped to his waist and his kimono undone to reveal the broad plane of his hairless chest and a wicked scar that ran from his right shoulder down nearly to his high-waisted belt. She blinked as she took in the sight of the dangerous looking and ridiculously attractive Tenkou and blinked at him. It took her longer than she would have liked to blush and remember what was more important.

"You can wait a minute." She told him coldly, and turned back to Satori. _"I'm sorry, we're very busy. But I was serious. What can we do to help Yafutoma breathe again?"_ Satori didn't answer her, and wasn't even looking at her, Laurette realized after a heartbeat. He was pale as death as he looked _past her_ to the man who had interrupted them, and Laurette took a step back when the merchant fell to his knees and kowtowed. _"Satori?! What are you doing?"_

_"Your highness!"_ Satori cried out, ignoring her question. The way he said that made her blood run cold, and she slowly turned and looked back at the man again, realizing who he must be.

She'd only heard the name in the aftermath of the battle, and had put it away because of more pressing concerns. But this, by Satori's reaction, was most assuredly Prince Daigo Tokugawa. Moegi's older brother.

He was smiling at her oddly, also. _"You speak our language somewhat well."_

Laurette cocked her head to the side. "You speak Mid-Ocean very formally. You could stand t'loosen up some, y'r highness."

Daigo raised an eyebrow at that, and Laurette put a hand to her waist, wondering what had made her willing to snap off like that to their _strongest ally._ Nothing for it now, though.

_"The worst fighting is higher up. Around the palace. You will want to go there."_ She told him haltingly. Daigo's face darkened at tht.

_"My father is still in danger. We must rescue him."_

Laurette nodded, looking to another set of Blue Rogues coming in her direction from a previous assignment; Khazim and Lawrence, along with two older Esperanzan fighters. She'd sent them to search for any Valuans that might be hiding in the warehouses along the docks.

"You'll be wanting some help then." She said to Daigo, and whistled to get the attention of the returning Blue Rogues. "Oi! Listen up you lot! Prince Daigo's going after his father. You feel up to helping him out?"

Khazim let out a loud cackling laugh, hoisting a smaller swivel-deck gun he must've pulled off of its mount, and two pouches of buckshot and pre-bagged gunpowder slapped off of his waist. "Khazim has not yet slaked his thirst for the blood of Valuan dogs and traitors!" He pounded a fist against his chest as they came up and pulled just short of Daigo and Laurette and a still bowing Satori. "We will aid you, prince!"

"Good?" Daigo hummed, smiling unsteadily. Laurette rolled her eyes at the unspoken question he had on his face.

_"Yes, Khazim is loud. Yes it is normal. And yes. You will want to take them."_ She coughed and gestured to the skiff that Daigo had disembarked from. "Take the skiff to the palace. You'll be cut off from the others, but if the king is still alive, you'll want to move fast."

"The palace! We must retake it!" Daigo insisted, and Laurette scowled and stepped up to him, squaring off and tilting her head back to look up at him.

_"What is more important? A building? Or your father? Yafutoma needs the __**both of you**__ alive. So rescue him, and bring him back." _She shook her head. "He'd be safer on the _Delphinus_ than in the palace right now, I'm thinking. Until the dust settles."

Daigo seemed ready to argue further, but he paused and considered her words before slowly nodding. _"Very well. We will use your plan." _The prince looked past her to the other Blue Rogues. "Are you ready to fight more?"

Lawrence huffed and smirked a little, tapping the point of his sword against the side of his boot. "I could use a meal first." Laurette dug out a pressed bar of nuts and dried fruits she'd taken from the supplies of one of the first skiffs and tossed it at him, and Lawrence caught and examined it briefly before humming. "This'll do in a pinch." He conceded, biting into it and following Daigo and the other Tenkou who had come with the prince to move towards the waiting skiff. Daigo looked back over his shoulder once before he climbed aboard, looking back at Laurette with a pinched look on his face that she couldn't interpret. Then the small transport rose up and sailed over Yafutoma City, bound for the royal palace and the rescue mission waiting for them there.

Laurette sighed again, then yelped as Satori grabbed her arm.

_"You can't tell the prince what to do!"_ He hissed at her fearfully. Laurette had to laugh at the man's expression.

_"When he's wrong, I will."_ Please. She knew what dangerous men looked like, she knew when men were cruel and willing to hurt someone. Laurette hadn't gotten that vibe off of Prince Daigo.

Still, she was surprised that he'd bothered to _listen_ to her argument and go along with it. Yafutoman men didn't put much stock in the opinions and concerns of their women, from what she'd seen. Maybe Daigo was different because of Princess Moegi.

Problems for another day. Right now…

_"All will be well in time, Satori. Tell Nari that I will be wanting her cooking soon enough."_ Laurette reassured the merchant, shooing him off. _"We have more work to doing."_

* * *

_The Delphinus_

_Evening_

The day had begun with a jailbreak and a fight for their lives and it had ended with Laurette being well and truly exhausted after Satori had escorted her back to the harbor after she stopped by for a long-promised meal. True to her promise, Nari had stuffed her full of rice and fish until Laurette was drowsy, and then the mother of three had seen fit to return her bag - with all of the money inside of it, less thirty Ryo - so Laurette would be able to buy what the _Delphinus,_ and all the Blue Rogues aboard her, needed after such a strenuous battle and a day full of skirmishes. Even as she had hopped onto the skiff that took her from shore to ship, she'd seen a few fires burning in the distance, especially around what had been reported as the garrison headquarters for the Valuan occupation force and the royal palace. It seemed that they and the Tenkou would still be fighting throughout the night.

Laurette had stopped into the galley long enough to meet up with Osman and drop off the bag of recovered funds, which had the rubenesque woman gleeful in spite of the rising repair costs. Then she'd grabbed a thermos of piping hot tea from Polly and her 'big sister' Fatima and made her way through the ship to the living quarters, aiming for the room that she shared with Merida and Fatima. She planned to sleep in her own bed tonight once she'd drank enough tea to feel a little bit more normal. And tomorrow, after she washed her clothes, she'd head back into the city and continue the work. There were few others who could; the gossip in the dining room had made it clear that both Miss Aika and Fina were still out cold, sleeping through a bad case of spiritual exhaustion after the hard-fought battle against Bluheim. The surprising news had been that even Princess Moegi was similarly insensate, but everyone didn't seem too terribly concerned. Time and rest was all that the beleaguered women needed for their overextension of power. Laurette needed rest as well.

But when she opened the hatch, there was a twitch as the light from the corridor shone into the dark barracks, and a powerfully built man in a blue tunic and a white Yafutoman skirt spun around. Caught in the glare, Prince Daigo blinked in surprise.

"Mind telling me what you're doing standing in my room? In the dark?" Laurette inquired flatly.

_"What? I'm sorry, this is your room?"_ Daigo said unsteadily. "I am sorry. I was not thinking anyone was here."

_"What were you doing?"_ Laurette asked him, repeating the question in Yafutoman for the prince's benefit. She reached for the light switch beside the door and flipped it, making the lightbulb in the ceiling blaze to life. Daigo squinted and covered his eyes.

"Thinking." He answered.

"You couldn't think anywhere else?" Laurette asked him acerbically, stepping inside the cabin and closing the door behind her.

"Without others." Daigo muttered, averting his eyes as she went over to her bed and unscrewed the lid from her thermos. _"I needed to be alone."_ Laurette looked up and caught him running a hand through his hair, fretting and fidgety.

"Hnh." She poured out a cupful of tea into the lid of the thermos and held it out to him. "Here."

"What is?"

_"Tea. Drink it, -your highness-." _She said, and Daigo guffawed once at her. _"What is funny?"_

"What you said." He snickered. "Is not what you should say. Is...what you would say if I was Moegi."

"What?" Laurette stared at him. "Did I just call you a girl?" He took the cup lid full of tea from her and waggled his free hand side to side. "Oh. Did I use the phrase for princess? Instead of prince?" He nodded, and she flushed and took a drink from the thermos straight. "Of course I did." She muttered to herself.

_"You say, __**your highness.**__ If it is me."_ Daigo corrected her, smiling a little too widely still. Laurette snorted and waved a hand at him.

"Drink your damn tea. Yer highness." She snarked at him. He did so, humming in approval at the taste, and she pounced on the conversation. "Right. You aren't going to leave until you're feeling more like yourself, are you? So what's runnin' through that funny head of yours?"

_"What?"_ Prince Daigo blinked. Laurette rolled her eyes.

_"What are you worry for?"_

_ "Worrying about." _Daigo corrected her absently. "My father. He...he not sleeping now. Has asked to see me."

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?" Laurette said. Daigo didn't speak, and she exhaled. "Right. Well. Least we know why you were hiding in the dark. So what are you worried about? You're his _son._ You're responsible for leading the Tenkou, getting Vyse and the others back to the _Delphinus_ to free us and retake it."

"He exiled me." Daigo mumbled. _"Stripped me of my honor. He cast me away. The punishment for returning from exile is death."_

"...You think your own father's going to demand your execution?" Laurette blinked. "Really? After every **last bleeding thing** that's happened today? After you saved your kingdom and saved his life and protected your sister?" Daigo took another sip of tea and pointedly kept looking away from her.

"Empire." He corrected her softly.

"Whatever. Moons, you're ridiculous. And here I thought princes were a more self-assured lot." Laurette groused. "Enrique's been fucking spoiling us." She slammed down another swallow of tea, grimacing at how quickly it lost its heat in the cool Yafutoman night air. "Tell you what. If he _does_ try to throw the book at you, just tell Vyse. If you can't go home, then you make a new one."

Daigo polished off the rest of his tea with a skill that would impress any Nasrian firebreather. _"It isn't that. It is my honor. If he does not restore it, then I am lost."_

Laurette thought that over. _"Explain? Please? What honor is to your people?"_

_"Honor is earned through your service. Honor is your code, living by the proscribed rules. Honor is gained through respecting one's parents and elders and ancestors. My honor as the crown prince was bound in how I would serve my people. But it was torn away from me when I was exiled. I lost my name. I lost my title. I am nothing but a leader of pirates now."_

Laurette took another drink from her thermos, then held it up, offering to refill Daigo's cup. He looked at her oddly. "Oh, get over it, I don't feel like drinking all of this myself." She sighed. The prince nodded and held out his cup for her, and she poured the rest out for him, flumping back onto her cot and yawning. "Does Vyse have honor?" She asked wearily.

"Yes." Daigo said without any hesitation.

"Does Enrique?"

"Yes."

"But Vyse is a pirate. And Enrique is also exiled. So how can they have honor?"

"They...I don't…" Daigo struggled to find an answer. "They just do!"

_"Then so do you."_ Laurette explained. "And nothing your father says, or does, can take it away from you." She brought an arm up and laid it over her eyes. _"Honor can't be taken. It can't be given. Honor is yours. To lose, or to gain."_

She heard Daigo shift his weight a little and then drink his tea in several long swallows. "Who are you?"

"Nobody special." Laurette said. "Just a girl who wanted to see the world."

_"You speak my language. You befriend my people. The others look to you for guidance. Who are you?"_

"Laurette. Just Laurette." She rolled over. "Now stop moping around and go talk to your father. And turn the light off on your way out, some of us need to sleep."

She had her eyes closed before he'd left the room, but she heard the click of him hitting the switch and then the glare against her eyelids lessened. She could have shuffled off the bed to get the blanket over her properly, but her kimono was still warm, and it was easier to cocoon herself in the blanket and call it good.

She was on the edge of sleep before she realized that there had been a man in her room, a man watching her as she got ready for bed, and she'd not been on edge about it. It passed her by as a curiosity and then drifted out of her mind as sleep took her completely.

* * *

_The Royal Palace_

_Yafutoma City, Yafutoma_

_201 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The work of fumigating the upper sections of the city and neutralizing the last Valuan garrison had gone on through the night, because when Laurette disembarked from the skiff to start coordinating the efforts on shore again, there were a host of reports already waiting for her. The garrison had put up one hell of a fight, but all their defenses had gone to nothing after a few of Khazim's cannon crew put their more explosive solutions to work in _knocking down walls_ instead of trying to get past the barricaded doors. The troopers had surrendered before they could cave the roof in on top of them, which as the note from men trained by the gruff anti-Valuan Nasrian could only read, _'Was a damn shame because we were hoping to bury them without a lot of extra fuss.'_

The Tenkou, to Laurette's frustration, were less rigidly organized than the Blue Rogues were. They didn't follow the stricter command structure that the fighters from the _Delphinus_ did and corralling them into one objective or another was a chore as the tasks downgraded from 'attack these places and neutralize the Valuans and Kangan's loyalist defenders' to 'we need to set up patrols to maintain some order in the streets.' Which hadn't been her idea, but a notion that Prince Enrique and Fina had tasked her with passing on to their crews in the still suffering city. In the end, Laurette had settled on a very loose order with very clear instructions.

_"These are your people."_ She had told the Tenkou. _"You have suffered and they have suffered. Don't make things worse. Your leader wants there to be peace, so there will be peace."_

Then another messenger from the ship had come down and given her a missive to take to Prince Daigo, and Laurette tightened up her still unwashed winter kimono and soldiered on to find him. She passed by patrols of city guards working in tandem with Tenkou warriors and even the Blue Rogues, which had been parsed out one to a group in case of Valuan soldiers being located. She could no longer hear the noises of fighting in the streets, and the harried early morning gave way to a more peaceful, if ruined scene as she made her way further up through the battered walls of Yafutoma, climbing up stairs in search of Daigo.

One patrol in the Middle Ring directed her towards the royal palace in the upper levels, claiming that they had seen him heading there to regroup with the largest force of his men for the last push. By the time she reached the royal palace and was recognized by the Tenkou stationed out front, the fighting was done. They waved her inside after she told them her business, and then Laurette found herself wandering grand hallways with wooden floors and windows with thin paper coverings. The servants in the castle were still cleaning out bloodstains, and Laurette forced down the nausea and pressed on.

She found Prince Daigo, leader of the Tenkou, pacing in a lavish study with a handsomely carved wooden desk. He paused and nodded to her as she came in. "Laurette. What do you need?"

"A break would be nice." She huffed, smiling at him. _"Stand easy, your highness. I bring a message from the ship."_ Which ship went without saying. She took in the sight of him, haggard and worn out and obviously having gone without sleep the night before. "You look like hell, y'know."

_"I look...bad?"_ Daigo tried to suss out her meaning, still unfamiliar with many Mid-Ocean colloquialisms. She nodded and handed him the letter. _"We have been fighting all night. But the palace is ours again."_

"How did things go with your old man?" Laurette pressed him. "With the king?"

_"Emperor."_ Daigo corrected her, and Laurette rolled her eyes. _"He restored my honor."_

_"You never lost it."_ Laurette reminded the royal, and he chuffed.

"My name, then. I am Tokugawa once more. I am Crown Prince once more. Regent, while my father heals. He said…" Daigo's throat closed up. _"He apologized. Kangan almost took everything from us. If he had not banished me because the ministers pressed for it, we could have stopped him years ago."_ Daigo's eyes narrowed. "But is over now. Kangan is dead. His Ministers...captured. _And I must pass sentence on them."_

Laurette held up a hand. "Okay. That's a lot to deal with, but why don't you read that letter first?"

He nodded and broke the seal on the letter, unfolding it. His eyes sparkled as they danced over the script, and he turned it around so Laurette could see it. The script was...Elegant. But definitely Yafutoman.

_"I cannot read that."_ Laurette told him with a wince.

_"That you can speak my tongue is impressive enough, Laurette."_ Daigo reassured her. "It is my sister's writing. She is awake. _She is recovering with the Ladies Aika and Fina who were also exhausted from fighting Bluheim. She tells me my father is being cared for by the ship's physician just as they are, and that Prince Enrique and Captain Vyse visit them often."_

Laurette laughed. "That's not all that surprising. Vyse is something of a worrier about those two girls."

_"He cares for them?"_

_"The ship has a betting pool over which one of them he is in love with." _Laurette hummed. _"And before we reached Yafutoma, there was one night that they both fought over him. And then both kissed him in front of everyone at dinner. He ran away when they told him to choose."_ Daigo blinked and busted out laughing. Laurette snorted. _"Yes, it is sort of funny."_

"You Westerners. So interesting." Daigo said, wiping a finger at his eyes. "Are you all like that?"

"No." Laurette admitted. "I'm not like that. Most of us aren't. But Aika and Fina are...different. They're more, somehow. And Vyse is something else entirely."

_"King-maker."_ Daigo said. _"He does not wish to rule. But those he favors? Enrique? Myself?"_ The prince shrugged. "I am glad my sister is well. I am glad my father will live. But he has asked me to be Regent. I must condemn men to death."

Laurette raised an eyebrow. "What men? Your father's ministers?"

"Yes." Daigo told her, and set the letter aside so he could make a fist. "They conspired with Kangan. They abused their titles. Their power."

"All of them?" Laurette questioned. Daigo made to speak, and she held up a hand. "You were pacing. Why?"

_"Because what I must do is a hard thing."_ Daigo said. _"If they were not part of Kangan's conspiracy to grow and sell Opium and poison my people while they grew fat on wealth and the power it brought, then they did nothing to stop it. They did nothing to stop the coup when it happened, and good men, the loyal soldiers of the palace paid for it with their lives. Moegi told me of the guards who gave their lives to get her safely to Vyse and his friends. None of the Ministers moved to stop Kangan's plot."_

Laurette thought about it. "So, you have to execute them all."

"Yes." Daigo confirmed. "To prove my strength."

Laurette stared at the man and saw the hesitation and the doubt in his face. "And it's the right thing to do?" He didn't say anything, and she folded her arms. "You can't say yes, can you? _If executing them all was correct, you wouldn't be here arguing against it. So what's the problem?"_

"I'm not sure. It is what is expected. But will it solve problem? Or make more?" Daigo ran his hand through his hair again. "I cannot think. _I am too tired and too exhausted from all of the fighting. I want to do the right thing. I want to protect Yafutoma. I want to save its people."_

"You are protecting them. You **did** save them." Laurette insisted. "And you know what the right thing is. You aren't Kangan, you're so much better than any of the corrupt people in your government and your military who overthrew your father and weakened your country enough that Valua could march in and take it." Laurette sat down in a furnished chair and shook her head. Daigo was swimming in doubts and looking for not just an answer he could live with, but a _right_ answer.

Who was Laurette to try and give him one? She was just a woman nobody expected anything out of. She wasn't nobility. She wasn't a warrior. She hadn't studied tactics or government, and all she knew in her limited experience couldn't help their ally, a prince looking for a good solution. But she did know _something_ that could help Daigo. There was something she remembered. So she drew in a breath, steadied herself, and spoke.

"Vyse and Enrique had a problem like this, you know."

_"They had corrupt ministers?"_ Daigo joked, and Laurette cackled.

"No. They had the Armada to fight against to get out of Esperanza, to reach the Dark Rift. And how they fought was going to send a message." Laurette looked up at Daigo and smiled. "How do you think they fought?"

_"With their shining cannon blazing death on their enemies."_

"No. They never used it on them." Laurette shook her head. "I wouldn't have understood it if there weren't other sailors on the ship who knew how to make sense of it. They had to explain what it meant to me because I didn't know dick about flag signals."

Daigo tilted his head to the side, confused. "What is...dick?" He asked, and Laurette flushed.

"Um. Never mind." She told him meekly, definitely not feeling up to explaining that phrase. "The point is, they were constantly flying flags that told the Valuans that they were free to surrender and fly off whenever they wanted. They never used that Moonstone Cannon of theirs. They didn't fight to kill them all. They fought to wound, to make the Armada think twice, make them back off and surrender. And that's just what they did. They weren't out to kill them all, just to get past them and move on." Laurette pointed at him. _"What do you want, Prince Daigo? Do you want to kill them all? Or do you want to make sure that they cannot hurt Yafutoma more than they have? And is there a way you can do that without killing them? Would killing them reassure everyone that things have changed, or just make them think that everything is the same?"_

Daigo narrowed his eyes and looked up, thinking. "We do not like changes. We like things to be the same. There is saying...um. How is...Ah. May you live in interesting times? It never means good things."

Laurette looked at him. "So...everything the same? Forever? Never changing? Never growing, or getting better?" It didn't sit well with her, and she crossed her legs and gripped the armrest. "If we Esperanzans had thought that, we'd still be waiting on the other side of the Dark Rift waiting to die. Is that what you want for your people? To just...keep going? Waiting to die?"

The door to the study opened up, and a pair of Tenkou with shaved heads save for a mop of dark hair came inside, bearing no weapons. _"My lord? We have finished gathering all the ministers. They wait for you in the throne room to be sentenced."_

_"Thank you, Jao. Mao." _Daigo said, folding his sister's letter back up and tucking it inside the folds of his robe. He paused before walking out and looked to Laurette, scrutinizing her. "Would you want to come? With me?"

Laurette blinked. "Why?"

"Because I want you there."

"I'm nobody special. I'm not royalty, I'm not nobility. I'm not a minister. I'm not even Tenkou." She dismissed him. "I'm just a messenger here today."

Daigo got a strange look in his eyes that she couldn't place. "You are more. Come. Please."

Well. He did say please. Laurette nodded once and got up, and followed Daigo with Jao and Mao flanking him as they proceeded out through the castle to the throne room with its lavish red wooden interior. A pile of Yafutoman men of middling to elderly age were gathered before the throne, dressed in fine silk robes that were dirtied and torn with their hands bound behind their backs and kneeling with a dozen Tenkou warriors standing over them, weapons drawn for an inevitable kill.

Daigo's back was straight and proud as he strolled into the throne room, and he took his place before them with Jao and Mao off of his shoulders. Curiously, he gestured for Laurette to come up and stand to his right, and wondering what he was getting at, she did so. Down at the base of a dais, a court scribe stood ready before a pedestal with ink and paper to record what was said and done for future review and study.

_"Ministers."_ Daigo began darkly, turning his rugged visage down on them. _"Kangan Kurowei, who conspired years before to imprison my people and force them to grow Opium, and then funneled that drug into an illegal trade that poisoned Yafutoman citizens to line his own pockets has been executed. Not only for those crimes, but for high treason. Kangan conspired with the invaders from the west, the __**Valuans,**__ to depose my father, end the Tokugawa dynasty, and begin his own. He would have sold my empire and my people into servitude for his mad ambitions, and in the process he killed most of our loyal guards and exposed the deceit and treachery within our military...and within this very chamber. But your emperor lives. Valua has been cast out. And the monster that Kangan summoned and thought to use to cement his iron-fisted rule has been slain. My exile has been rescinded, and by the command of my father, I stand before you as your Crown Prince...and your __**Regent.**__ With the full authority of the emperor behind me, I will now pass judgment on you all."_

Laurette drew in a breath as softly as she could manage, wondering what would happen here. This was an absolute monarchy. Daigo's word would be law, there would be no appeal. Some of the ministers simpered and whimpered and tried to beg for mercy, offering empty platitudes and pledges of loyalty.

_"Enough."_ Daigo cut them off with a bitter word. _"You will all share the same fate as Muraji Kurowei, the son of the dead traitor Kangan. My first thought was to have you all and your families killed. It is, after all, what was done in the old days before the Tokugawas came to power. What would be more fitting for a group of useless and corrupt sycophants who followed a corrupt power blindly for their own greed and easy living?"_ He paused, and Laurette looked over them all, seeing the fear dancing in their eyes. _"You should feel fortunate that I care more about what others will think of my dynasty and my own reign than the rage of my own bloodlust. I cannot have men that I do not trust and cannot trust holding positions of power in my government. Kangan was such a man and so are all of you, corrupt to one degree or another in your drive to be complicit, or to avoid his ire. None of you were willing to risk your livelihoods or your lives for what was right. My sentence is thus: From this day forth, I strip you all of your Ministries. I strip you all of your titles and your lands, and your ill-gotten wealth. Your money will be used to help my people recover from this ordeal. The world is changing, gentlemen, and none of you have the courage or character to face it. You would only weaken Yafutoma further. I banish you all to Exile Island along with Muraji, and there you will live the rest of your lives on pain of death if you should try to leave, or conspire to cause mischief in my empire. I give you your lives because it is merciful, and because you will serve as an example to those who would try and work against the good of my empire. The Mandate of Heaven is mine and I use Heaven's mercy along with its justice."_

He turned his nose up and made a gesture. _"Get this filth out of here. I want them on a ship bound for Exile Island before the sun sets."_

The former ministers were all dragged out, still pleading uselessly for Daigo to change his mind. He said nothing until the mighty doors had slammed shut and their grating voices were no more, and then he turned to Laurette and offered an easy smile and a raised eyebrow. "Well?" He asked.

"You spared them." Laurette breathed.

_"They will harm no one ever again."_ Daigo agreed, sighing. _"There is the matter of taking control of their lands and finding proper stewards while I try to find better, more worthy nobles to take their place."_

"Who says you need nobles?" Laurette shrugged, giddy and thrilled in a way at Daigo's wisdom and merciful sentence that left her feeling bolder than usual. "You know these people, right? The Tenkou all come from people like them, right? Farmers and outcasts and people who got stomped on? Why not see how they manage ruling over themselves without any noble in their province? Or you could have them choose speakers to represent them."

"Represent?"

_"Someone they choose to speak for them to you directly, instead of a noble."_

"Hm." Daigo rubbed at his chin, and looked to Jao and Mao, who stared between Daigo and Laurette with mounting consternation. "Perhaps. I must think on this. Talk with my father. He might be willing. After all of this. Thank you, Miss Laurette. You were very wise today. My heart is at peace." He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "I can live with this decision."

"Are you proud of it, though?" Laurette asked him.

"Yes." Daigo said, on a moment's reflection. "I am proud. I feel...honorable again."

"You had it all along, you know." Laurette said. And Daigo smiled and hummed.

* * *

_Iyashi No Mizu Lodge_

_The Foothills of Mount Kazai, Yafutoman Mainland_

_205 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

Putting Yafutoma back together was not something that happened overnight. The surviving Valuans from the occupation had been arrested and were awaiting their sentencing back in Yafutoma City, although Laurette had heard through the gossip mongers that they would likely be sent to work on isolated farms on distant islands, where they would find no weapons beyond farming implements and no means of escape. The duration of their stay was up in the air, but the scuttlebutt from the rest of the crew was that Prince Enrique had asked that they not be worked to death, but instead might gain a little perspective on the depth of their misdeeds by serving the people that they had set out to conquer. So, humane treatment and tough, but workable hours. It was more than they deserved, many Yafutomans (And Blue Rogues like Khazim) grumbled, but Laurette found herself agreeing with the plan that Daigo and Enrique had set forth. It showed what kind of leaders they both wanted to be; the Valuans could have refused to follow their orders, but didn't, and their crimes against the people of Yafutoma deserved punishment. But it didn't deserve a death sentence.

Then there was the matter of reforming the military, something that Laurette cared less about and tried to ignore. But she hadn't been able to blank it all out, and from what she'd overheard, there were Tenkou bragging about being legitimized. Some of the Tenkou were retiring and returning home, but there were some who'd gotten used to the taste of fighting. For the Tenkou, blanket pardons and commissions in the reformed Imperial Fleet were the order of the day.

And for the crew of the _Delphinus,_ the intrepid Blue Rogues led by Captain Vyse who had secured Yafutoma's freedom? The ship was still being repaired after the brutal fighting and there were several repairs which they would need a proper dock for, all of which was waiting on the other side of the world. But Emperor Mikado and Prince Daigo (And Princess Moegi) had all agreed, and insisted, that they deserved a proper period of rest and reward for their service to the jade throne.

Their reward turned out to be a trip to a Yafutoman resort in the forests around Mount Kazai, but which was also well clear of where Bluheim's corpse had crashed and skidded to a halt. A resort with something that Laurette had never seen in her life, but quickly felt was one of the greatest things to exist in the world of Arcadia.

With as chilly as Yafutoma could get at night, who would have ever thought that there would be natural springs of mineral water kept heated and supplied from underground reservoirs? And who would have thought that Yafutoma would have capitalized on them so fiercely?

Laurette sighed and sank deeper into the steaming waters of the large hot spring. There were several connected pools of steaming water, the cooler ones the furthest from the mountain and the warmest leading to the source, a small cove tucked into the side of the hill that the resort sat on. She and the rest of the women of the _Delphinus_ were spread out in the middle pool with a fence of tall spruce planks lining their part of the compound and separating them from the springs where the men were relaxing some distance away. She could hear them guffawing and joking and splashing a little, and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Others didn't bother.

"Men." Merida snorted, leaning back against one of the rocks and stretching her sinuous dancer's body up and out, unashamedly displaying herself to their eyes under the glow of the blue moon and the stars that shone through the trees overhead. "Your people have some wisdom, princess. They give us a place to relax away from them."

Princess Moegi, an 'honorary' member of the crew after her timely assistance during the battle with Bluheim, hummed cheerfully and craned her head back against the edge of the rocks that surrounded their pool. "There are some bath houses where men and women can be together, but this resort felt it wise to separate them."

Osman made an undignified squawk, resettling into a new position with a flump that made the waters splash out around her. "Oh, dear. Do you mean to say that there are men who take advantage of unsuspecting women who are merely trying to manage a good soak?"

"No more than anywhere else." Moegi said dryly. "But here, there is...um. Tradition? That lovemaking under the blue moon's full light makes it more likely to conceive a child? There are some places in Yafutoma who...offer tours for couples who are trying for children."

"Really?" Fina exclaimed, leaning forward with her wet hair trailing behind her head like a curtain. "That's so fascinating! Is it just a cultural phenomenon, or is there a religious, mystical aspect to it?"

"Why do you ask, daughter of the silver moon?" Kalifa inquired from her own lofty perch in the pool above the rest of them, leaning on her arms on the overlook to peer down at them. She wore her glasses in spite of the lack of any other garments, and the thick rims hid her eyes from view with their usual sheen.

"Yeah, Princess, why are you asking?" Aika drawled. Laurette couldn't help but look at the other redhead jealously as Aika held her long red hair out in front of her and ran a comb through it. She could fight as well as any man on the crew aside from Enrique and Vyse, could use magic, and kept the ship flying. And on top of everything else, she was remarkably pretty with her toned legs and arms and tight stomach, her muscles trained from fighting and working. And she looked over to Fina with her brown eyes lidded, as if the Silvite woman was her best friend in the world and not her rival for Vyse's affections.

Fina blushed a little and squirmed in place under the water, wrapping her arms around herself. "I was trained as a priestess of the Silver Shrine, and that meant learning all of the ceremonies. Including two for marriage. The first was for blessings of unions at any time, and was used more often. The second was...far more intimate. Meant only for marriages that desired the full blessings of the silver moon. In that one, the couple to be wed stands at midnight under the light of the moon and disrobes, then they offer their prayers up to the moon and declare their love and desire to never be parted from their mate."

"They would get married...while they were _naked?"_ Fatima whispered in surprise.

"Skyclad." Fina corrected the woman, blushing madly but somehow finding the courage to press on. Perhaps it was because in spite of the salaciousness of the act, it was a sacred ceremony to her people. "I was taught that it was a gesture of trust between the couple and to the heavens. They stand, hands pressed together, and show themselves to the moon and to the gathered. Without artifice. Without masks. Without any deceit. They declare themselves, and the silver moon shines down on them, watching and seeing the truth of their love."

Nobody said a word as Fina reached behind her for a small ceramic bottle and took another drink of warm rice wine. Then the Silvite smiled and quirked an eyebrow. "Of course, maybe my ancestors just liked to keep the prudes from showing up."

That caused a wild spasm of laughter to echo between all the women, with Laurette even slipping and falling back into the water. She came up with a gasp to even more laughter in response, and saw Kalifa slapping the stones she was leaning on.

"Well." Polly said, when the older woman had calmed down a little. "I won't ask what the Silvites do for a wedding reception."

Fina thought about it as everyone else snickered, missing the obvious ribald joke. "I don't know what they do." The blonde-haired girl confessed finally. "I've never been to a wedding before. Or officiated at one."

"What about your parents?" Fatima asked. "Surely they spoke of it."

Fina's smile was small and almost nonexistent, and to Laurette's surprise, Aika let her hair go and slid over next to the Silvite. Her smile was larger than Fina's, but strained, and when she put a hand to her love rival's shoulder, Fina leaned into it gently.

"I was raised by the Elders of my people." Fina told them gently. "There were no records of my parents that I could ever find, and none of the Elders ever spoke of them."

The awkward silence persisted until Merida raised up her own bottle of sake. "Then you can be the priestess at my wedding, when the time comes."

Fina gladly smiled and perked up at that. "I'll make sure to clear my calendar for it."

"Got anyone in mind yet?" Aika asked slyly, and Merida blushed. "Ooh! Seems like I hit the mark! Is it someone I know? Is it _someone on the crew?"_ The redhead cooed, and Merida splashed water at her.

"No! Shut up!" Merida snapped, and the rest all giggled. "Oh, I hate you all sometimes."

"You do not." Kalifa told the Ixa'takan dancer easily. "Although you do embarrass easily." The fortuneteller took pity on Merida's constant blushing, and changed the topic. "So, Miss Aika. Miss Fina. What news have you that has not been shared about the ship yet?"

"There's a couple of things, actually." Aika replied, grabbing Fina's bottle of alcohol and taking a swig for herself. "It seems that Daigo's old man wants to give us a proper reward for saving his kingdom from Valua, and from Kangan's big play. They've been trying to clean up Bluheim's corpse for a couple of days, but it was made of tough stuff and they're not managing very well. But there were some bits and pieces of that Gigas which got sheared off when it crashed into the side of the mountain, not to mention the scales and parts of it that got stuck to the _Delphinus_ during the fight, and they thought that Vyse should take them as a symbol of his victory."

"What are we supposed to do with that?" Osman inquired. "Is it particularly valuable? Would the captain even be willing to sell it?"

"Nah. He wouldn't." Aika brought a leg up out of the water and stared at her toes as she wiggled them. "He wants to make weapons out of what we've got."

"You can do that?"

"I had a boomerang that I carved out of a piece of Grendel which got sheared off and stuck on Drachma's Harpoon Cannon when we knocked that angry green giant into the ravine. I miss that boomerang. Lost it when we were captured during the burning of Nasrad." Aika cackled. "What they're giving us off of Bluheim's corpse? It's _better._ It's stronger than moonstone-infused steel. The only problem is working with it."

"What about getting back home?" Polly lamented. "I am so _glad_ that we found my dear husband inside the Dark Rift, but I really don't want to fly back through it again."

"We're not." Fina reassured the woman, preening a little. "But we _are_ getting back to Mid-Ocean again. That, I promise you."

Kalifa stood up from the higher pool and put a hand to her hip, dripping water as she looked down at the Silvite imperiously. "What do you know, daughter of the silver moon?" The fortuneteller demanded. Fina giggled and shook her head.

"Now, Kalifa. I can't go telling you _all_ my secrets, you haven't earned them. Rest assured, Captain Vyse will be informed." The Nasrian woman was mollified and sank back down into the water, and Fina glanced up past the fortuneteller and the higher pool to the source of the waters. "Moegi, I'm curious. The waters of these hot springs, they come from within the side of the hill here, yes?"

"Yes. Our scholars believe the lake inside Mount Kazai drains into heated aquifers and feeds out through here." Moegi told the blond-haired woman.

Aika tacked on to the conversation. "It kind of looks like a cave entrance up there in the hillside."

"It is." Moegi nodded. "That is a grotto, and while there are no poison gases inside, it is restricted…"

"Perfect." Fina said, standing up so suddenly that the water cascaded off of her curvy body in rivulets. She smiled and looked to Princess Moegi, sliding a hand through her wet yellow hair. "I think Aika and I might go and have a look. It's lovely sitting here, but I confess that I'd like to get up and move around a little."

Moegi seemed ready to argue, but Aika cut her off with a cocksure grin. "We like sitting around and feeling pretty as much as the next girl, Moegi, but I like _doing_ things more than I do resting around. Come on. You'll smooth it over with the locals, right?"

Moegi looked skyward. "I suppose, I could…"

"Great!" Aika grabbed Fina by the arm and pulled the more well-endowed young woman along behind her, stomping up out of the middle pool. Fina barely had time to grab their fuzzy cloth robes and urge Aika to slip hers on before they went trudging along the stones around the upper pool and Kalifa, then they were walking through the grasses towards the grotto's entrance.

"Don't kill her now!" Merida shouted after Aika, who let out another one of her patented belly laughs and waved behind her without breaking her stride. They slipped inside the small grotto entrance, ducking down and slipping into the slow-moving stream as they did, and then the rest of the women were alone.

"Why are you afraid that Lady Aika will kill Lady Fina?" Moegi inquired.

"Because they are rivals for the affections of the good Captain Vyse." Osman said impiously. "There's betting on which of them he will end up taking to his bed. For a time, it seemed as though he'd already decided, but there was a rather salacious incident at dinner before we reached Yafutoma, so it's anyone's guess."

Moegi blinked several times and opened her mouth as if to argue the point, but blushed and looked away. "I see."

"I don't suppose you'd care to make a wager?" Kalifa asked the princess invitingly. Moegi blushed even harder and shook her head.

"It would not be proper." She said. "Besides. You will all be leaving soon."

"And you don't want to come with us?" Merida asked her.

"It would be nice." Moegi admitted. "But I am needed here."

"Before, you were." Laurette piped up. "When it was just you. But now your brother is back. He's no longer exiled. He's the crown prince again. Are you still bound as tightly as you were before?"

Moegi hesitated, and Laurette pushed the point. "Blue Rogues Fly Free. I think a part of that is admitting that it's okay to want something different. We didn't want to stay in Esperanza. Not when we had the chance of something better. So what do you want, Moegi?"

The princess didn't have a ready answer waiting, and Laurette shrugged. "It's okay. You don't have to answer that."

"You left where you came from. You traveled. Are still traveling." Moegi said. "You must be needed too."

Laurette wondered what Moegi meant by that wistful remark, and pondered briefly if it was the warm sake that had brought it on.

"Well, this got too serious all of a sudden." Fatima remarked, and waded over to hand Moegi another small bottle of the rice wine which tasted awful at first, but grew on you after a few sips. "Here. Drink up, your highness, you're not nearly dizzy enough. We still have to talk about the _men we like."_

"Oooh! Gossip! How positively droll!" Osman cheered, and Laurette rolled her eyes and took a longer swig than usual, coughing after.

She'd need a lot more of this if she had to hear Osman gush over how much of a 'beefcake' Tikatika was.

* * *

_The Delphinus_

_207 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

"Laurette!" Fatima shouted, which had the effect of startling the red-haired woman out of her daydreaming as she supervised the loading of additional supplies of rice and vegetables and fish (Both preserved and fresh, still swimming in small steel tanks with living plants in them) on board. They'd needed someone relatively fluent in Yafutoman to act as intermediary between the city's merchants and the crew, and as always, she had been tasked as the main point of contact.

Laurette spun around and looked to her adopted older sister as the Nasrian woman stormed across the open hold. She seemed more irritated than outright angry, but it still left Laurette on edge.

"What is it, Fatima?"

"Mind telling me what's going on, little sister?" Fatima demanded, half growling.

Laurette blinked and gestured around her. "We're loading up the ship for the next leg of our voyage?" She answered unsteadily.

"No, not that. I want to know what's going on between you and Prince Daigo." The dark-haired and dark-skinned woman snapped back.

It felt like her eyebrows hit her forehead. "What?" She exploded. "What in blazes do you mean, Fatima? I hardly know the man!"

Fatima tapped her foot and glowered at her in a way she hadn't since Laurette had been a teenager, and Fatima had caught her out in doing something unsavory, like trying to sneak alcohol. Only this time, Laurette couldn't think of a single thing she'd done.

"Really." Fatima drawled. "Then would you mind explaining why a _royal servant_ from the palace was outside of our cabin, bowing to everyone who passed by and asking if **Rady Ro-Ret** was around?"

Laurette twitched. "What?"

"He's gone now, but he had a large box with him, and he set it inside our cabin on your bunk! He even knew which bunk was yours without me telling him!"

"Oh, and I take it you looked inside that box?" Laurette rolled her eyes.

"No. But I _am_ curious enough to make you do it while I watch. Because I have my suspicions. Even if you say there's nothing going on…"

"Because there isn't!" Laurette snapped. "I have met the man exactly _twice_ in my life! And he's a prince! I'm nobody!"

"You are not _nobody."_ Fatima told her crisply. "You are my sister and I worry. It is _because_ he is a prince that I do."

"Why?"

"The Nasultan? The Valuan nobility? They believe the world is theirs to do with as they please. That the rest of us are either tools or playthings." Fatima finally looked worried. "I don't want to see you become either."

Laurette sighed and set her head in her hand. "You're worried over nothing. Prince Daigo isn't like that. He's trying to be better."

That only made Fatima grow paler and seem more stricken. "You are making me worry even more now."

Honestly. Laurette loved her big sister Fatima, but the woman could be so _neurotic_ sometimes. She handed her clipboard over to another member of the crew and shouted out orders for the loading to continue. "Come on. I'll show you that you have nothing to worry about." She said reassuringly, and walked up to their cabin with Fatima hot on her heels.

* * *

Maybe she _should_ have been more concerned, Laurette reflected exactly one minute after they reached their cabin. There was a letter slipped into the blue silk ribbon tied around the two foot long cedar box, and when he read it (With Fatima peering over her shoulder and squeaking in dismay), Laurette could see why her sister was so _concerned._ If she hadn't known there was nothing going on, it would have been remarkably suggestive.

_**To the Lady Laurette of the Blue Rogues and Esperanza,**_

_** I offer this gift so that all will know you are Treasured.**_

_** -Prince Tokugawa Daigo, Crown Prince of the Divine Yafutoman Empire**_

"Treasured." Fatima hissed the word. Laurette sighed and folded it back up.

"Mid-Ocean isn't his first language. I'm certain he doesn't mean anything by it."

"I'm sure." Fatima settled into a discontented hum, and Laurette pulled the ribbon off of the box, carefully spooling it for later use. She went to pull the lid off before she discovered that it was meant to slide instead, and with a few gentle tugs, she revealed that inside…The contents left her too stunned to speak.

Gently folded, one after another, Laurette pulled out half a dozen of the full-length kimonos she'd fallen in love with because of how different they were from everything she had worn before. Not one of them were a simple, flat blue like the thick kimono she'd been wearing and washing (And wearing out) for days. Half of them were thicker cloth like her existing one, while the other half were thinner and made entirely from silk, and she could tell just by running the cloth between her fingers that they would hug her tightly when wrapped and tied, and leave little of her to the imagination. Not like she was all that terribly pretty to begin with.

What was Daigo _thinking,_ gifting her so many robes made with cloth woven in such elaborate and expensive patterns? Kimonos that no commoner would ever be able to afford, and even the richer merchants who owned a single one kept on display in their homes to be worn only for special occasions?

"This is ridiculous." Laurette muttered, shoving them all back into the lacquered cedar box less gently than they had been laid inside to begin with. "I have to talk to him."

Fatima set a hand carefully on her arm, and Laurette looked up into her adopted sister's eyes. "Little sister, no man would give such a gift freely. Are you…"

Laurette brought a hand up quickly, pressing her fingertips to Fatima's lips. "Enough." She growled. "I haven't _done_ anything. I'm not _going_ to do anything. We haven't kissed, he hasn't ravished me, and even if he's interested, it would never work out. I'm going to take these back and tell him that I can't accept them. And that'll be the end of it."

There was still doubt in Fatima's eyes, and Laurette didn't pull her hand back until she saw the older woman nod gently. "And if you didn't want this to be the end of it?" The Nasrian cook asked brokenly. Laurette felt a painful twinge run through her as she thought of the question and fell back on the only real answer she had.

"I'm just a woman good with numbers and languages. What is that to a prince who will one day be king?"

She slung the box under her arm and left, trying her best to ignore how she hadn't really answered Fatima's question at all.

Laurette was tired of confessing what she'd known and been told all her life - that she was nothing special at all. Just an orphan in a world full of them, without the talents one needed to get anywhere in Arcadia.

* * *

_The Royal Palace_

_Yafutoma City, Yafutoma_

_30 Minutes Later_

The servants had been polite, recognizing her and using her name as she stormed up to the royal palace. The guards, a mixture of Tokugawa loyalist soldiers that had survived Kangan's purge and reassigned Tenkou, hadn't so much as demanded her to halt and be recognized. It wasn't until she reached the inner corridors of the royal palace, in the center wooden building surrounded by the massive pond full of lilies and bright orange fish and ducks that she met any resistance in her push to find Daigo. And even then, as higher-ranked palace servants tried to slow her down, they were nothing but respectful.

_"Please, my Lady, if you would wait here, I will see if his highness the Regent Crown Prince is available to meet with you!"_ One permanently smiling aide said, walking backwards ahead of her in a vain attempt to make her slow down or stop.

_"I require no introduction. What I have to say to Prince Daigo will take no time at all."_ Laurette said, soldiering forward.

_"Please, my Lady!"_ The man exclaimed tightly, bowing _again_ as he kept pace ahead of her, as if the usual Yafutoman disciplines of polite behavior and forbidding access without actually forbidding it or barring her path would have any effect on her. She kept on walking and was more than a little pleased when his focus on her became so great that he failed to see the post she was guiding him back into. He hit the wooden support beam and yelped, and she pushed past him, shoving one of the heavy doors that led into the throne room aside.

There, she found Daigo speaking with an admiral of the slowly reforming Yafutoman Navy, and the two looked up at her as she approached.

"Lady Laurette." Daigo said, genuinely surprised at her presence. _"We were not expecting you."_

"Clearly." Laurette droned, coming within ten paces of him and switching the box full of kimonos from under one arm to the other, as she'd been doing every four minutes or so since departing the _Delphinus._ "I need to talk to you."

"Ah. One moment then." Daigo turned to the admiral. _"I will put additional ships of the Tenkou at your disposal. Run them down and end them."_ The man came to attention and bowed deeply, then turned and walked out, eyeing Laurette severely as he did so. He didn't like Laurette being here. Tough. She stared right back at him and refused to give any ground as he passed by, and he ended up snorting loudly before turning his head and marching out without another word.

"I think Admiral Chen likes you." Daigo said to her, smiling as he folded his broad arms over his chest. He was wearing his short-hemmed kimono with the right sleeve dangling uselessly behind him, exposing the massive scar that ran from his shoulder nearly to his (thankfully covered) navel.

_"I'd hate to have him dislike me, if that is what he looks like when he favors someone."_ Laurette said. _"Now." _She hefted the box and raised an eyebrow.

"Ah." Daigo nodded. "Talk. Yes. In my father's study?"

"Not yours?"

_"He is the Emperor. I am just his Regent. Until he regains his strength and returns to the throne, anyways." _Daigo smiled. He unfolded his arms and pointed to a doorway she was well familiar with, and they passed out of the throne room. Inside, the study looked the same as it had near a week ago when Daigo had been agonizing over what sentence to pass on the Ministers of his father's advisory council who had either collaborated with Kangan or been too impotent to stand against him.

Unlike back then, Laurette felt no need to be polite. She dropped the cedar box of garments on the ornate wooden desk in the room and spun around to glare up at the prince. "You shouldn't have given me these."

"Why not?" Daigo asked curiously. _"Do you not like them? I thought you enjoyed our clothing. And I even made certain that half of them were the heavier variety you wear."_

"It's not about liking them, Daigo. It's...it's inappropriate." She threw a hand up in the air. _"What will people think when they hear that their prince sent a Westerner, a foreign girl, half a dozen expensive kimonos? By the Moons, did you think of that?"_

"They will know that you have earned the gratitude of the Tokugawas, and of all Yafutoma." Daigo told her.

"And they won't think something else?" Laurette growled. _"I read your letter, Daigo. You all but claimed me as your __**Mistress.**__"_ Daigo's eyes went wide. _"And if you're just buttering me up with gifts to bed me…"_

"No!" Daigo said loudly, shaking his head. _"No. I swear to you, Laurette, that was not my intention. Please. Allow me to explain."_

She rubbed at her forehead, feeling the start of a headache coming on. "Fine. You can start by telling me why you didn't send them to Miss Aika or Miss Fina. They did _far_ more to save your kingdom and your people than I did."

"Empire." Daigo corrected her half-heartedly, and she chuffed just enough to get a smile out of him. Three times she'd seen this man, and now that was an old joke between them. She was living a strange kind of life. He motioned to a pair of simple wooden chairs, and she sank down onto one. He took the other with a less graceful motion than she had, perhaps a sign of the kind of uncultured living he'd gone through over a decade of being exiled and leading the Tenkou. He folded his hands in his lap, breathed in and out a few times to center himself, and rolled his shoulders.

_"The gratitude I feel towards Captain Vyse and the other Blue Rogues is great."_ Daigo began steadily. _"But you are deserving of gratitude as well. While the others have worked along with us, you learned our language. You made friends among my people, and you care for them beyond alliances of convenience or necessity. You were a voice of reason and civility when I had lost my own, and spoke of patience and a willingness to change and lead by example rather than tradition. The Blue Rogues helped me to save my homeland, and I am proud to call myself friend to Vyse and to all under his banner. But what you did, what you continue to do, is something that goes beyond it."_

Laurette could only listen and wonder what in blazes he was driving at. Daigo was coiled like a spring, ready to snap, and he gripped at the armrests. _"The first time we met, you found me in turmoil. I feared for what my father, who had banished me, would say and do. Until he broke down and begged my forgiveness for not seeing the danger that I did, I thought he would condemn me to death for breaking my exile. If it hadn't been for your kind words to me, about how he would not...I might never have gone through with meeting him."_ He smiled thinly. _"You were my strength, when my own courage failed me. And the second time we met, when I held the lives of my father's corrupt and useless ministers in my hands? You were the one who convinced me to remove them from power instead of killing them. It was not the expected punishment...but it was the right one."_

Daigo motioned to the box of kimonos sitting on the desk beside them. "That is a gift. For what you do for me. For what you do for my people." She opened her mouth to protest, but he raised a hand to cut her off. "What I hope you will continue to do."

"What?" Laurette started a little. "What do you mean?"

"I have had my people asking about you. They have told me how even before Valua came, you...you were making friends. You were trading. You were learning to speak our language. After Bluheim, you were so much helping everyone. My people are hurt from this all. But we cannot hide from rest of world. Not now. Not ever. We must _join_ it, with Vyse and with others who fight Valua. Vyse show them that there are Westerners who fight to protect people. You? You show them that there are Westerners who _care."_

Laurette flinched under the praise. "I'm nobody."

"You are more." Daigo insisted.

"No, I'm not!" She snapped at him. "Do you want to know who I am? I'm a woman whose parents died sailing into a storm they had no chance of surviving, who spent 20 years living at the edge of the world with only an adopted older sister and a bunch of uncles who kept getting older and never thought I could do a Moons-damned thing except work in the kitchen! I'm a woman who ran away from everything I knew at the first chance I got because I wanted to be different! There's no duty I follow, there's nobody who cares what happens to me. Of everybody on the crew, I'm the one who goes forgotten. I can't fight, I can't fly. I'm good with numbers and I'm good with languages, but what's that, really? What's that to everyone else, who are so much better at all the things that matter?!"

_"What you do matters."_ Daigo pressed her, standing up quickly and staring down at her. _"Who you are matters. There is nobody here in the city who does not know you. You are the fire-haired woman from the west who came holding out a hand, not pointing a sword like the Valuan admiral. You are kind, and you are reasonable, and you care. My people admire you. And so do I. I am hoping that you will stay when the rest leave."_

Laurette would be lying if that thought of staying, of making a home for herself here in this new land wasn't appealing. But there was Fatima, and the rest of the crew and everyone from Esperanza…

"And do what?" She asked him brokenly. "Keep counting how many bags of rice get loaded onto ships?"

"No." Daigo refused the idea. "Not so small. I want you to be Advisor to me."

Laurette sucked in a breath. "What?"

"Stay here. Please." Daigo said. "I need your help."

"You want me to be a minister? Like all the ones you finished exiling and running off days ago?"

"No." Daigo said. _"Not like them. They sat in rich homes and rooms doing nothing. You would not. I know much of war. I know how to fight. I know how to be a strong ruler."_ He sat back down. _"I need you to make sure I am also a kind one. I need someone here I can trust. I need an advisor who loves my people as much as I do. I need an advisor who can teach my people the ways of the West, and who can teach them to speak your tongue. I need someone who will stay, who will keep showing the people of Yafutoma that not everybody in...In _Arcadia_ are monsters like Valua is."_

"They aren't." Laurette said woodenly. "There's lots of people in Valua who aren't monsters. Marco grew up on the streets, poor and forgotten. The monsters are the Empress and her Admiralty, and the Armada."

_"Yes!"_ Daigo said enthusiastically. _"We need someone who can show them that also!"_

Laurette shook her head, still not believing it all. It was too much, too fast. The prince of Yafutoma wanted her to stay? Wanted her to be his advisor? A Minister? Not in her wildest dreams had she ever fathomed anything close to that.

"I'm not…" She stammered.

_"If you try to tell me that you do not matter, that you are not as valuable as anyone else who came with you on that blue metal ship, I will yell at you for being stupid."_ Daigo interrupted. "I use my sword for my people. I need _you_ to tell me when to put it away."

"You aren't a monster." Laurette told him. "Everyone I've met, everyone I've talked to, they told me what you did, what you were banished for. What you've _been_ doing. You don't need me to tell you when to stop, you are a good man."

Daigo got down from his chair and knelt in front of her, taking her hand and pressing it between his. "You are good woman." He told her solemnly. _"There are times I don't believe I am a good man, but you say I am. So I tell you, Laurette, that you are __**not nobody.**__ You are a good woman, and I will keep telling you that until you believe it."_

She felt hot and dizzy, and suddenly the room was far too warm and her faded winter kimono was stifling. Her face burned as she looked at the prince of an entire kingdom who was kneeling before her, looking at her like she was…

Laurette pulled her hand away from his and stood up suddenly. "I have to go." she said quickly. "I...I have to go."

"Wait." Daigo said, standing up, but not reaching for her again. She froze, and his jaw tightened before he turned and reached for the box on the desk. Daigo held it out to her. "Please. These are yours."

"It's too much." She told him weakly. "These are too expensive. I haven't earned them."

His eyes shuttered. "You have earned _one,_ at least." He slid the lid of the box open. "Please. Take one. Any you wish. For all you have done, take it."

"I don't want to say no." She confessed. "I don't want to say yes. I - I need to…"

_"You wish to think about it."_ Daigo finished. _"Which is wise."_ She nibbled at her lower lip and nodded. _"There is a dance in two days, the last night before Captain Vyse and the Blue Rogues sail away. We will be sending some merchant vessels with them to open up trade, they say that they will show us the way to Ixa'taka, where the green moonstones come from. It will be the last time that we in Yafutoma will see you all for some time. Can you give me your answer then?"_

Laurette's eyes misted up. "Okay." She whispered. Daigo kept his countenance and hefted the box up expectantly. Laurette hesitated, then spoke again. "These kimonos. Did you have someone choose them?"

"No." Daigo said. "I chose them all for you. I…" He paused. _"I wanted it to be a personal gift. With meaning. I know what they all look like, I imagined you wearing them."_

She swallowed, feeling her heart begin to thrash wildly in her chest again. "Close your eyes." Laurette ordered him, and to her surprise, the ruggedly handsome prince did so. "If I come to the dance wearing my kimono, or I do not come at all, you will know I have refused you. But...if I come to the dance wearing one of these?" She slid her hands into the box, the soft rustling of silk and thicker cloth against her callused hands filling up the silence. She hesitated for a moment, then pulled out one and quickly bundled it up, shoving it down the front of her kimono between her breasts. "Then you will know what my answer is."

She slid the box shut, and tapped a finger against his knuckles. "Open your eyes, Daigo." He did so, and gave her another nod. His eyes were softer than before, longing. And hopeful.

"You do not wish me to know which one you chose?" He asked her.

Laurette smiled and shook her head. She turned around and walked out as slowly as she could manage, trying desperately not to run away from the weight of his heated, hopeful gaze, and the wild dreams of an entirely different life that he wanted to offer to her.

* * *

_The Delphinus_

_Ship-Board Greenhouse_

_208 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

There were plenty of things left to see to before the _Delphinus_ would set sail, and inventory was one of the most important. With Osman seeing to the manifests of goods which the fleet of merchants that would be accompanying them and preparing them for what she knew of Ixa'taka's culture and people, Laurette found herself tasked with both running them through their introductory language lessons and going over the ship's inventory. That was what brought her to the greenhouse which they had constructed for the storage and growing of the plants and herbs which were brought aboard, both for Dr. Ilchymis's medical use and also to protect and preserve the saplings and bushes that they were taking with them. It was primarily the domain of the ship's physician and Miss Fina, and occasionally Miss Aika or Merida, and when Laurette had found it, she'd realized what a relaxing secret it was.

Today, though, she came inside and was surprised to find that someone else apparently had gotten the same idea. Princess Moegi Tokugawa, resplendent in her finery, was kneeling beside an elevated flower bed and examining the petals of some rare Yafutoman plants that they were bringing with them. She looked up when the hatch creaked open and nodded respectfully as Laurette stepped inside.

"Your highness." Laurette greeted her.

"Laurette." The princess said, smiling wanly. "It is good to see you again."

"You remember me?"

_"You are known by my people, and there are not so many women on this ship who have red hair."_ Moegi replied. "You are here to make accounting?"

"More or less." Laurette confirmed, pulling out the graphite pencil clipped to the side of her clipboard. "What about you? I thought I saw you wandering the ship earlier."

"I was." Moegi said. "I wanted one more look around. Before you all left." She sounded so sad that Laurette hesitated.

"You've been thinking about what we talked about at the hot spring, right?"

"Of course." Moegi replied, her eyes sliding away to focus on another plant. "I have thought of little else." She was silent then, and Laurette decided to wait, scratching her pencil along the chart as she recorded how many different plants were viable and how many of each. Moegi made it all of twenty seconds. "I want to go with you all." She volunteered, so timidly that it made Laurette think she was afraid of being punished for voicing it. "But I can't."

"Why not?" Laurette asked, careful not to come off as upset or forceful. Moegi fidgeted with her hands.

"Do you know of Daccat, the Western air pirate?"

Laurette thought for half a second. "Of course. Everyone's heard of Daccat. Vyse found his hidden treasure - or the lack of it - as I recall."

"He was known here also." Moegi went on. _"My ancestors called him Daqat. Our records claimed he kidnapped a relative of mine, Princess Kikue Tokugawa from her own wedding. The stories differ. Some say she was taken. Others say that she went with him willingly. There were many who wondered if Vyse was the second coming of Daccat, especially since he wears that black hat of his all the time with its red and blue ribbons laced through the corners. But Daccat's hat had no ribbons in it. My brother is back. My father is alive. And Yafutoma will heal, but it is changing. There is a saying we have, a curse. __**May you live in interesting times.**__ Yafutomans do not like change, we are taught to fear it."_

"And now everything's changing." Laurette said, acknowledging that truth. "So that's why you want to stay? Because you think they need you?"

"Our people need someone." Moegi said miserably. "My brother is strong, and brave, and he has the loyalty of the Tenkou who are even now being given positions in the military to replace the ones we lost. But I am the one who speaks the Western tongue better than anyone. I am the one who can help Daigo connect to our people. He and my father will need help if they are to guide Yafutoma through the trouble of all the changes that are coming. Yafutoma _must_ change." The princess laughed once, sadly, and shook her head. "I want to go. But who else can do these things? I look at this ship and the people on it, and the promise of seeing the rest of the world. I do not think Kikue was taken unwillingly." The Yafutoman royal braced herself and sat up taller, hardening her face. "I think she left because she did not want the life laid out for her. It is my duty that chains me here. It is the fear that I am _just like her_ that keeps me from acting on it."

Laurette dropped her clipboard and moved to Moegi's side, pulling the younger woman into a tight hug. She could feel the dark-haired beauty tremble in her arms and let out a single, whisper-soft sob.

"It'll be okay." Laurette reassured her. "It'll be okay."

Moegi wiped at her eyes. "You are braver than I am, Laurette. I should just be brave enough to reach for what I want. But I can't." She shrugged out of Laurette's arms.

The red-head set her palms on her legs. "Because your people need you."

"There is nobody else who can help them."

Laurette felt the gentle buzz of something tug in her mind, and her thoughts flashed to the kimono she had carefully folded, wrapped up, and stored beneath her bunk.

Daigo had asked her to stay with him, and to help him. And here was Moegi, holding herself back from her happiness because of a sense of duty. Did her brother know how she really felt? Was that why he had asked Laurette? Or were they completely unrelated?

"What if there were?" Laurette heard herself ask.

"Hnh?"

"What if there _were_ someone else who could help them?" Laurette repeated, and Moegi turned to look at her. "No, nobody specific. Just...answer the question. If you knew there would be someone who could teach your people how to speak the Western tongue, who could show them and tell them about Western ways, and help them to become strong enough to stand up on the world's stage...would you go then?"

The princess hesitated, then slumped her shoulders and nodded weakly. "Yes."

It burned in Laurette's heart, and she covered it up with a shaky smile and a nudge to the other girl's shoulder. "Well. I suppose I can understand why, given how I've seen you looking at Prince Enrique."

"Laurette!" Moegi gasped, shoving her back, and the redhead giggled. "Please!"

"Okay, okay." Laurette conceded. "Hey, at least he's royalty instead of an air pirate. You've got that much going for you at least. But I hope you weren't secretly pining for Vyse, he's got two women after him already after all."

"He...is a good man." Moegi said. "But Vyse's heart is taken. And...I looked at Enrique first." She was blushing now. "Please don't tell anyone."

Laurette nudged Moegi's shoulder with her own gentler than before. "I won't." She sighed, and thought of Moegi's brother Daigo, whose rugged features and chiseled body made him unlike any other royal she'd ever been told about, like the cruel Empress of Valua or the fat and now dead Nasultan. A prince and a future king who never rested, and was always working, always fighting.

Always smiling in a way that made her feel too warm.

"It's hard not to fall for a prince that good looking." She told Moegi softly, and let the Yafutoman royal lean into her side.

* * *

_Delphinus, Foredeck_

_Evening_

There was a gentle breeze that came through the Yafutoman skies, and Laurette must have been growing accustomed to the crisp air because she almost felt like she could loosen her winter kimono. If it hadn't been for the breeze shifting, she wouldn't have caught a changing scent on the wind from someone trying to sneak up behind her. It was useless. Of all the smells in the world she knew, one that always made Laurette relax was the perfume distilled from cactus roses that Fatima liked to wear from time to time.

"You found me." Laurette said, recalling all of the times in her adolescence where she'd left the tavern or their shared shack to try and find somewhere to be alone and vent at the world. There'd been plenty of places around Esperanza where she'd been able to hide away.

"You weren't really trying to hide this time, little sister." Fatima teased her back. Laurette hummed and leaned a little more over the railing which separated the foredeck from the gundeck where the four powerful turrets and the torpedo hatches lay, and looked from the corner of her eye. Fatima joined her at the rail and looked out over the gentle pink skies of sunset, and the wind caught in the curls of her hair. "It's nice out here, though. Better than the lighthouse, even."

Laurette let out a short laugh at that. "Yes. It is. Here, I can look out and it feels like I'm still _going_ somewhere."

"That would be different." Fatima conceded. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I've just...been thinking a lot lately. About stuff."

Fatima went still, and kept staring out towards the distant walls around Yafutoma City, and the islands they sat on. "You aren't coming with us, are you? You're going to stay here."

"Yeah." Laurette sighed. "I was thinking I might. A part of me felt like I oughta stay here on the ship with the rest of you, but...you don't need me. Not really. Spending the rest of my life as either Osman's gofer, or a helper for you in the kitchen? It's not what I wanted. I still don't know exactly what it is I want out of life, but...I want more than this. And there's so much to do here in Yafutoma. So much to see."

"Do you love him?" Fatima demanded, and Laurette could feel and understand the heat in her adopted sister's voice. Fatima had come to Esperanza, having been seduced by a Valuan sailor who promised her the world. He'd survived the expeditions and gotten his orders to return back home...and he'd left her there in Esperanza, broken-hearted.

"No, I don't." Laurette told her. "And Daigo didn't ask me to marry him, or try to woo me. Do you know what he wants me to do?" She waited for Fatima to shake her head. "He wants me to be an _advisor._ He wants me to help him get Yafutoma ready to join the rest of the world."

Fatima looked at her in surprise. "What? Really? But what do you know of government? In an entirely different kingdom?"

Laurette stared back at her. "So. That's where I got it from." Fatima blinked. "You know what he does hate? Me always being so hard on myself. But I came by it naturally. That's all anyone from Esperanza ever saw of me. I was just some little girl whose parents were dead. Just some kid that they had to look out for and protect because she couldn't do anything. But here, I'm more than that. Here, I'm a friend to loads of people. I'm someone that the Crown Prince trusts to give him good advice and to keep him on the right track. Here, I'm a Westerner that the Yafutomans _trust_ and _respect,_ and who can show them how t'be better than they are now."

Fatima blinked, and Laurette softened her glare. "Daigo's not like that jackass you ran off with, Yafutoma isn't Esperanza. And I'm not you. You're worried about me. And I'm glad you are, because it means you still love me, like I love you. But I wanted to be more than just your little sister, Fatima. I wanted to do something good. And I think this is my chance. If you want what's best for me, if you want me to be happy...you'll support me in this."

The Nasrian woman's lip quivered a little, and she looked away. "I do care for you. I do want you to be happy. And if this is what you want to do…"

"It is."

"...Then I'll support your decision. But I was hoping you'd be there when we got back to Maramba. I...I was hoping I could introduce you to my mother. I wanted to show her my life wasn't a waste."

Laurette pulled the older woman into a tight hug. "Never. It was _never_ a waste. You saved me, big sis. You saved my life, and you'll always have a place in my heart and in my home. No matter what. And you don't need me there when you go and talk to her. You're brave enough on your own. And you tell her that she's got another daughter on the other side of the world who loves her sister more than anything."

There were tears shared between them, and the hug lasted for a long time as they worked up to speaking again. "So have you told anyone else?" Fatima croaked. "That you're leaving the crew and staying here? Who else will be able to translate for the merchants who will be flying with us?"

"No. Not yet." Laurette told her. "I wanted to tell you first. Everyone else...I'll tell them tomorrow. But I don't think they'll mind. I'm pretty sure that there's a replacement lined up already."

"Who?" Fatima asked, pulling away and looking at her little sister.

Laurette just smiled. "Come to the dance tomorrow night."

* * *

_Yafutoma City_

_The Grand Market Square_

_209 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Evening_

The Grand Market Square was one of the most impressive public improvements that the Tokugawa dynasty had installed when they assumed power over Yafutoma. It had been meant as a symbol of their power and their pride in the people. It became something more over the years, as a place for every major public gathering and announcement and celebration where the people of Yafutoma City could gather. The New Year celebrations were famous and greatly anticipated, but tonight was a different event entirely. It was a public dance and party, sponsored by the jade throne where all were welcome as they bid farewell to their Western friends and comrades, the Blue Rogues. Tomorrow morning, the _Delphinus_ would sail out for distant lands, escorting three merchant ships whose captains had been brave enough to venture to a new frontier in search of trade and greater ties. Tonight, they celebrated and gave thanks to the Blue Moon that the royal family was all alive, that Yafutoma still stood, and that the treasonous snakes had all been stamped out.

Fireworks burst overhead, the brightly colored plumes of gas and glittering dust in the night sky serving as both backdrop and focus to the celebrants. Red paper festival lanterns hung from every building's awning around the massive space where four different roads met, and along carefully hung strings above the enormous square that were stretched between them. Yafutomans danced wildly in lines and in circles while musicians pounded on enormous drums and gongs or played strange, _twangy_ stringed instruments that weren't quite lutes or blew on reed pipes. Along the edges, vendors shouted out what they were selling, foods and drinks and noisemakers and paper fans and every conceivable thing one might need for a party. Or that someone might want to take with them; Gold coins were flowing as freely as Yafutoman Ryo.

Prince Daigo and the Emperor and Princess Moegi were along one side of the square up on a raised platform, presiding over the party with good cheer, but with a more reserved nature than eyes were on Captain Vyse and the crew of the _Delphinus,_ and everybody cheered as Vyse, Aika, Fina and Enrique joined hands and began dancing and leaping in a spinning circle that grew as more people, Rogues and Tenkou and Yafutoman civilians alike, joined the throng. There were some that weren't out on the square partaking in the dancing; Osman, for instance. The rubenesque Nasrian trader was content to sit at her table, sampling various dishes which were arrayed all around her like a buffet. Lawrence and Lapen were leaned up against the side of a wagon full of liquor almost shoulder to shoulder, each holding a white porcelain bottle in their hands as they watched the dance in amusement. Then there was Kalifa, who seemed to drift through the celebration without ever being touched by it. The fortuneteller had that same strange little smile on her face, and there was a moment when she turned and caught Laurette's eye from a hundred feet away. And she smiled even wider as she inclined her head a little, which made Laurette dizzy. She remembered how Kalifa had asked for her story before they ever reached Yafutoma, how hers was the first one to be recorded in the journal.

Had Kalifa gone to her first because she had known? All that time ago, had she known that Laurette would be leaving?

Fatima's hand settled on her elbow and Laurette started. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Fatima asked her, speaking a little louder to be heard over the noise. Laurette swallowed and nodded. She'd given her word. It had been two days, it was the night of the party. She had told Daigo...she would give him her answer tonight.

"Breathe." She said to herself. "Just breathe." She looked at Fatima and gave the woman one more hug, and then pulled the opening of her worn blue kimono tighter around herself.

Laurette had known that she had friends in Yafutoma, friends like Satori and Nari. Friends like the half-dozen other merchants who had gotten to know her as a person beyond the job. Friends like Haoru who was Tenkou, but was looking forward to returning to rice farming and marrying a nice girl and starting a family. She hadn't known just how many lives she'd touched and how many people actually cared about her until she started the walk across the bustling square towards the royal family, who were surrounded by guards. The Yafutomans recognized her, even the ones she didn't know. They turned and called out her name and smiled at her, and that made even more people turn and look at her, like the Blue Rogues who hadn't seen her but heard the sound of her voice. She couldn't go unnoticed, there was no helping it. The color of her hair, vibrant red in a sea of black, made her stand out from the crowd. She smiled back, waved, kept on walking, and tried to keep her eyes on Prince Daigo as she went. He hadn't noticed her. He hadn't seen her, and she looked away for all of a second and then -

He was looking right at her, and the still, placid smile he'd been wearing shattered for surprise and a hopeful expression which crumpled into a weaker smile when he saw her faded blue winter kimono.

She could end it here. She could wave, turn around and saunter back to the edge of the party, and that would be the end of it. She could leave with Fatima and everyone else, and be the girl that they all were used to. The woman who was helpful, but who nobody ever expected anything from.

But Laurette was _done_ being that woman. She wanted more out of her life. So she took a breath and kept looking at Daigo, making sure that he didn't look away. She reached for the folds of her blue kimono and pulled it off, revealing she'd been wearing a second robe underneath the entire time.

The one she had taken from the box that Daigo had given to her, a purple and blue kimono, with gold silk along the hems and the ends of its sleeves, and thin, not meant for chillier climes. She didn't know why she'd picked that one at the time, there had been five others just as good. But now, it meant something.

Blue, for Yafutoma. Purple, a mixture of the Red Moon that hung over the continent of Nasr, with Esperanza at its southernmost tip and Yafutoma's color. And gold - gold, so like the yellow of the kingdom which her parents had come from, but so much brighter than the Empire it was today.

She watched his face change from the forced and courtly smile he'd been wearing, and shift into wonder before bounding headfirst into absolute joy. Before anyone could stop him he'd pushed up from his chair and leapt off of the platform, landing amidst the crowds past the cordon of Yafutoma guards. Laurette found herself frozen to the spot as the crowd reacted, moving out of his way and wondering what their returned prince was doing. Some of the more observant partygoers drew a line between where he'd started and where he was going, and caught sight of her.

Laurette couldn't look away, and she didn't want to. Daigo kept on pressing forward and parted the crowd like they were a lake he could swim through, and when he reached her, his strong hands caught her around the waist and he lifted her into the air with a bellowing laugh, spinning her around with such happiness that she couldn't help but laugh in return. There were gasps of surprise and more than a few cheers from the crowd as they watched Daigo twirl one of the cherished Blue Rogue allies about.

When he stopped and set her back down, she felt dizzy from more than just being spun around. Daigo clasped her hands in his. "You will stay?" He asked, hopeful and still needing reassurance. And how she loved that sound, how she loved that this enormous bear of a man who had made wicked men tremble in fear could be so unsteady and so worried because of a woman. Because of her.

"Yes, Daigo. I'll stay." Laurette said, giggling a little before sighing and straightening her features. "I will help you rebuild your kingdom."

"Empire." He corrected automatically, and she rolled her eyes. And that was when she became aware of just how many people were staring at them. She froze up until Daigo squeezed her hands, and that gave her the strength to speak again.

_"Prince Daigo of Yafutoma has asked me to stay and serve him and his people as an advisor, and I have accepted. There is much work to do, and I will help you all to do it! The People of Yafutoma and the People of the West can be friends, can be allies! I was Laurette of the Blue Rogues...from this day forward, I am someone else. I am Laurette of Yafutoma!"_

Cheers rose up from everywhere at that as her most vocal friends and supporters led the call, with Daigo raising a fist in the air to match them. She couldn't help but laugh, and turned her eyes towards the platform where the Emperor Mikado sat in a mixture of surprise and resignation at his son's antics and the loyalty of the Blue Rogues. She met Princess Moegi's eyes, and saw that the princess had a hand put to her mouth to hide her trembling lips.

No doubt Moegi was going over their older conversations now. The royal had confessed how much she wanted to go with Prince Enrique and the others, to try for something more in her life as well.

Laurette nodded her head at the younger woman ever so slightly and smiled easily. _It's okay,_ she thought and tried to make Moegi see in her face. _It's okay to go. I'm here now. I'm here to look after your brother._ Because surely, if a girl who had grown up being told she was nobody special could find the courage to be something more, a princess could find the courage to be more than her title as well.

Moegi stood and raised up her hand, and over the course of ten or fifteen seconds, the noisy crowd reacted and settled back down again, turning eagerly to listen to their beloved princess.

_"I have come to a decision as well."_ Moegi spoke up loudly, and her voice echoed around the silent square. _"We of Yafutoma can no longer hide behind our walls. The world is so much bigger than we thought it was, and we must become a part of it. For the good of our people, I will go with Prince Enrique and Captain Vyse and all the other Blue Rogues as a diplomat, and meet with the other peoples of Arcadia. This is my wish," _She said, glancing over to her father who looked ready to protest the point, and her face hardened as she went on, saying, _"And it is the wish of Heaven. We live in interesting times, but they need __**not**__ be terrible. Change is coming, and things will be different, but we will still be ourselves. We will still be Yafutoman!"_

The princess stepped down off of the viewing platform as cheers rose up again, and there were shouted calls for drinks to be brought out and poured for all in attendance. In the midst of the bustle, Enrique and Moegi and Vyse and Aika and Fina all crowded in around Laurette and Daigo, with the women hugging her and each other tightly while the three men looked at one another in amusement.

Vyse turned to her when Moegi finally let her go, sniffling, and his face turned serious. "Are you sure this is what you want?"

"Yes, captain." Laurette reassured him. "I can _do_ this. They need someone here who can help them. I can't fight, I can't fly, but I can help them. Besides," she gestured to Princess Moegi, who even now sidled in a little closer to Prince Enrique, "I've already lined up a replacement for you."

Vyse glanced over to Moegi and Enrique and waggled an eyebrow just enough to make the exiled prince blush a little, then chuckled. "Yeah, you have. Although I think that Yafutoma's getting the better end of the deal." Both Aika and Fina reached a hand up and smacked him in the back of the head, and he let out a noise and winced. "Geez! It was a joke! We're glad to have you, Princess Moegi."

Daigo set a hand on Laurette's shoulder, and she could feel the heat of his hand through the thin kimono. "Moegi." He said seriously. "Will this make you happy?" His sister looked between Daigo and Enrique, and a thin and tremulous smile settled into place before she nodded.

"My place is with them, brother." She answered. "My...my place is with him." Daigo sighed and nodded. "Very well. Enrique, you look after my sister."

"On my honor as a gentleman, she will be safe, and want for nothing." Enrique promised.

"Oho?" Daigo smirked, and let go of Laurette to fold his arms. "Good. You have my blessing." The color drained from Enrique's face and Daigo laughed loudly.

Aika was next to pull Laurette away from the throng, Fina hot on her heels as the Chief Engineer slipped an arm around her. "You know, I'm sorry I didn't see how much potential you had before." Aika apologized. "Nobody did, and I'm sorry for that."

"It's okay, Aika." Laurette grinned. "I didn't know how much I had either. But I wouldn't have tried...I _couldn't_ have tried to be more than a girl serving drinks at a dive bar in a dying town if you and Fina and Vyse hadn't flown in and shown us all we could be more than we were."

"Of course you can." Fina quickly added, sliding in to form a small circle and clasping their hands. "You're so brave, you know? But I know you'll help to make Yafutoma better. You care, and they need that more than anything right now. Is there anything we can do for you?"

Laurette bit her lip, looking over her shoulder to where Fatima was crying and sitting next to Osman, who patted the thinner Nasrian woman's back and handed her a drink. "Look after my sister, would you? Get her home to Maramba so she can find her mother and mend those fences."

"We will." Aika promised, squeezing her. "Us redheads gotta stick together, you know? We'll look after her. Anything else?"

Laurette looked between Aika and Fina, two beautiful young women on the cusp of their full maturity, the shining beacons of the Blue Rogues alongside the man they both loved. She bit her lip. "Figure out which one of you is going to be with Vyse, and don't let it mess up your friendship."

"Oh, that." Fina hummed. Her little smile curved a bit. "Are you just trying to figure out if you'd have won or lost the bet?"

"I won't be around to...wait, _what?_ You _knew?!"_ Laurette sputtered, catching herself. Aika busted out laughing, and then she and Fina leaned in closer to her still.

"I think you can keep a secret, Laurette." Fina tittered, and brought her lips up next to Laurette's ear. A soft puff of warm air passing by it made her shiver as Fina whispered to her. _"Nobody is going to win the bet. Because Vyse never had to choose. We couldn't choose, either."_ Then the Silvite pulled back, looking mighty smug, and waited as Laurette's thoughts spun around and tried to make sense of it.

Then she caught how Aika and Fina were standing, and where their hands were; on each other's hip. Possessively. Like they belonged there.

She blinked several times. "Oh." She got out, and looked up to their faces, catching the two smiling at each other with more emotion in their eyes than simple friendship. "Really?"

Aika brought a finger up and pressed it to her lips. "Shh." The engineer smirked, and winked at her. Laurette's eyes misted up. "It works for us. Now find what works for you. Okay?"

"Okay." Laurette nodded, still reeling from the news. She looked at Aika and Fina, settled and satisfied in a way that left her in awe. She looked to Moegi, who lingered close to Enrique and slipped him sly glances and soft smiles. "You're going to have your hands full with that one, though."

"Probably." Aika admitted. She looked over to Daigo, who even now spoke to Moegi and Vyse and Enrique. "But Daigo looks like a handful too."

"A couple of handfuls." Fina suggested, and she and Aika broke down giggling while Laurette blushed.

There was another toast after that, one which the Emperor led, praying for the wisdom of Heaven as his daughter prepared to be the voice of their people abroad and his son and their new 'Foreign Minister' would turn to the challenges of making Yafutoma stronger and brighter than ever. And after, when the cups were passed back out and the musicians started up again in earnest, and the dancing started all over again, Laurette took Daigo's hands in hers and smirked up at him.

"Let me show you how we dance in the West, yer highness." She said, pressing one of his hands to her hip and bringing the other out far to the side. Daigo chuckled and she melted under his eyes.

_"Show me then, Lady Laurette."_

So they danced, with all the world watching.

* * *

_Yafutoma Harbor_

_210 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Morning_

The _Delphinus_ departed the harbor at last, a line of four merchant vessels following it like the ducklings that coasted in the wake of their mother in the koi and lily ponds around the royal palace. Wearing one of her brand new (And far more elaborate and expensive) winter kimonos and her favorite pair of boots, Foreign Minister Laurette of Yafutoma sighed as all that was left of her friends and family faded into the distance, already turning north. There had been a rumor of a famous Yafutoman swordmaker who had become a hermit in his old age that Daigo had passed on to Vyse. It seemed that the captain was eager to recruit him as well.

"Do you miss them?" Crown Prince and Regent Daigo Tokugawa asked her softly, having never left her side. Everyone else who had been in the harbor to wish the convoy of Blue Rogues and merchants well had left to get back to their business, but Laurette had stayed to stand vigil as they sailed away. And Daigo had stayed for her.

"Yes." She admitted. "Do you miss your sister?"

"More than you know." Daigo confessed. "But she is with friends, and she held Yafutoma together for all the years of my exile. Besides, she is not going unescorted. The daughters of some of my old friends are going as well, and she has two Ladies-in waiting with her also."

"Daughters of old friends?" Laurette questioned, side-eyeing him for a bit. "Tenkou?"

"No." Daigo smirked. "The older is a carpenter like her father, and the younger is a cook." He paused, switching to Yafutoman. _"Among other things."_

Laurette huffed. "What did you do, Daigo?"

"Nothing. She will be safe. They will _all_ be safe." Daigo hummed, and that was the end of it. Laurette rolled her eyes, and looked back to the ships which were even farther away now.

"So. What next?" Laurette asked him.

_"There were two Valuan ships who were out searching for Tenkou when the battle happened. Our navy and the Tenkou were to bring news of their capture or defeat later today. After that, I suppose we rebuild. It will take some time for word to get around to all the islands of our success, though."_

Laurette thought it over. "Why don't you just go yourself?" Daigo looked over to her and she shrugged. "You want to show your people that the kingdom is stronger than ever. What better way than for the Crown Prince to sail out and meet with them? You want to know what needs fixing, seems to me you'd have an easier time if you went out and asked the people directly. Instead of trusting on nobles and advisors to do it for you." She raised an eyebrow. "Didn't work out so well last time, did it?"

Daigo chuckled, impressed with her. "It did not. That is a good idea. See? You _are_ a good minister. I should reward you again."

Laurette had to laugh at that. Rewards, please. She already had a full coinpurse and so many beautiful dresses. Heaven forbid he found out that she was living in a small home with a merchant and his wife and their three children for want of having something simpler and normal in her life. Next, he'd be shoving enormous houses on her and trying to give her a dozen servants. He would try and she would try to refuse him, and she had no doubt that they'd find a compromise that worked. He preened as she smiled back at him, and sudden impulse made her lean up and kiss his cheek with a quick peck before she settled back on her feet and grinned at him. "You're cute when you're stupid." She said, and Daigo blinked and blushed a little. "Let's go slow and see what happens. You can dazzle me with your plans for a tour of the Yafutoman islands over dinner tonight. Your father invited me to the palace. I think he's missing Moegi already."

"She has found her place." Daigo hummed. _"Hers is a happier story than our ancient relative Kikue. She goes with the blessings of our father, and with all the hopes and wishes of her people."_

Laurette leaned into him and sighed a little as Daigo's arm came around her, holding her gently around the waist as though he were uncertain if it were allowed.

"There is much to do." He said, as they watched the _Delphinus_ become a speck in the distance.

"Yeah. You plannin' on walking away again?" She asked him casually.

"No. I will see my home shine again. Even if it takes all my years." He vowed. He and Laurette looked to one another at the same time, and her breathing hitched as she fell into his deep, dark eyes. Will you help me?" He asked her.

Long ago, her parents had joined the expedition to cross the Dark Rift because they dreamed of seeing the unknown and making a new life for themselves and their family in the new frontier. Their daughter had fulfilled their wishes for them, and found a place to call home.

Laurette regained her senses and reached for his free hand, and squeezed it tightly.

_"My place is here. With you."_ She said, smiled, and looked back out over the horizon.


	38. Endless World

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Thirty-Eight: Endless World**

If this were a story, Fina considered at times, things wouldn't be so damned _complicated._ The stories she'd loved to read and have read to her when she was a little girl were simpler things. Ramirez had always made fun of her for them, even though he'd still taken pity on her and read her stories before bed while she hugged Cupil tightly and let the lyrical sound of his voice lull her to sleep.

In the stories she'd loved as a girl, some dastardly villain would do something terribly naughty, and there was usually a princess or a rich man's daughter or a tough as nails young woman who got caught up in it. And then a hero would come flying in and stop the villain, and they would fall madly in love, and they would live happily ever after.

If her life was a story, it would have a happy ending. But that was the problem. She didn't want it to end. Because even though it was messy, and full of pain, there were too many good things in it that she didn't want to lose. She had lost Ramirez, and now he worked for the Valuan Empire and the Armada, actively aiding the very people that the Elders had sent him to work against. But she had gained so much more. She had found love, the kind of love that she'd only fantasized about finding when she'd been a teenager and her taste in stories turned to romance and she discovered she liked girls as well as boys.

If her life was a story, then after they got back to Yafutoman airspace, retook the _Delphinus_ and beat the ever living crap out of the Armada and Bluheim, something that Fina was sure was deserving of epic poems and ballads, _everything should have gone back to normal._

It didn't, though. Kingdoms who had gone through a successful coup and a foreign occupation didn't just recover overnight. She and Aika had slept through the rest of that day, and when she woke up cuddled next to her red-haired lover, the very next thing she felt was Vyse's hand stroking her hair while she processed that they were on the _Delphinus,_ in Ilchymis's treatment room. There were tears in his eyes even as he smiled down at her.

"Wake up, my loves." He said, and his other hand went to stroke the side of Aika's cheek, making the redhead murmur and shut her eyes tighter. "We're alive, and the world's too beautiful for me not to share it."

Fina had smiled back at him, and felt her heart soar.

Her life was not a story, because it didn't have an ending. Snuggled up to the woman she loved, with the man who loved them both kneeling at their bedside, Fina wanted to laugh and shout everything within her heart. It was all still just the beginning.

* * *

_206 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

There were things that Fina knew which nobody else on Arcadia did. From a certain perspective, they _might_ have counted as a secret, but really they fell in the category of 'things which the world forgot when the survivors rebuilt after the Rains of Destruction.' To her mind, at least. She had promised to keep no more secrets from Vyse and Aika, and by the _Moons_ she would hold to it. But there were some truths that she knew of which would up-end their entire worldview. And one of them was vitally important for Vyse to understand. She'd been holding off on it for a while in the hopes that he might figure it out himself, but...well. He _had_ been dealing with quite a few things that were more urgent at the time, what with helping Prince Daigo and the Tenkou and the Yafutomans in reclaiming their homeland. And seeing the patchwork repairs which would have to do until they got back to Crescent Island where (hopefully) there would be a functioning base and drydock waiting for them.

She'd hinted at it last night at the Healing Waters Hot Spring resort to the other women before she and Aika had retreated into an off-limits grotto for some very satisfying lovemaking. Aika was still blushing some this morning, and Fina was enjoying the ache of it. So here they sat, the three of them together for a private breakfast separate from the others in the resort, with Fina wondering how best to phrase it in a way that would penetrate and stay in the minds of her lovers.

"You doing okay there, Fina?" Vyse asked, doing better with his chopsticks, but still using them to scoop up rice instead of pinching bites.

"I'm fine." She said, looking around the table. "Just thinking."

"You? Thinking? Perish the thought, Princess." Aika teased her gently. "Come on, spill. What about?"

"I'm trying to figure out how to say this." She said, and that certainly got their attention. She could see the wheels spinning behind their eyes, trying to figure out what she was driving towards. It was Vyse who reacted first.

"You're pregnant." Vyse said in a voice that was soft and wondering and suddenly terrified all at once. Fina blinked at him, then had to press a hand to her mouth to stifle the sudden laugh. The way Aika's eyes shot wide…

"No, Vyse. I'm not." _Yet,_ she mentally amended, and tried to tamp down the thrill that thought gave to her. "Uncle Ilchymis got the both of us restarted on our birth control medication. It'll be a while longer before it's safe for us to...um, enjoy you, but no." He was relieved at first, and then behind the lens of his telescopic goggle, she caught the twitch of an entirely different emotion. Disappointment.

Moons bless the man. Fina leaned over, put a hand behind his head, and pulled him into a lingering kiss. When she pulled back, it was only far enough so she could breathe, and she rested her forehead against his. "It's okay to want it." She whispered to him. "It's okay to not feel ready." He swallowed and nodded, and the look in his eyes, dark and blown wide as she smiled and just basked in the feel of his hand gently stroking her arm and his thumb sweeping over her belly and the smell of him all around her.

Aika cleared her throat loudly and refilled Fina's cup with some more coffee, kept heated to the perfect temperature by a low dose of her fire magic. "Well. Now that we've determined you're not knocked up, my lovely Princess, what is the big news then?" Fina nodded, kissed Vyse's forehead, and then sat back in her chair again.

"How did the Valuans get here?" Fina asked, and her eyes fell on the napkin Vyse had tucked into the collar of his shirt. The idea hit her like a thunderbolt, and she yanked it off of him, clearing her place setting and flattening it out in front of her. Then she reached for Aika's satchel sitting on the table and pulled out a marking pencil, quickly getting to work.

"Well…" Vyse began slowly, struggling to shift gears, "Admiral Belleza said that they got here by flying from Ixa'taka. Blowing a hole in that big stone reef I remember and then traveling west." He frowned. "But how does that work?"

"Quite easily." Fina told him, humming cheerfully. "If you know certain things." She kept on scribbling. "What does the world look like, Vyse?"

"Well, there's Ixa'taka on the western side of it, Mid-Ocean's in the middle, and the Dark Rift and Yafutoma are on the east." Vyse sussed it out.

Fina made another noise of acknowledgement, just about finished with her drawing, rough and rudimentary as it was. "And what is the shape of Arcadia?" She was used to seeing Arcadia as a holographic projection, spinning quietly in space with the six moons locked in geosynchronous orbit. Drawing it out on a flat surface…

"We see it every time we look at a map." Aika answered. "It's flat, just like our maps are."

Fina had to laugh at that. "No. Your maps are a representation, something to be laid out on a charting table for easy reference. So." She handed Aika back her pencil and held up Vyse's napkin, which now had a crude drawing of Arcadia on it, with Ixa'taka on the left side, Valua and Mid-Ocean and Nasr in the large middle section, and the Dark Rift and Yafutoma on the right. She let them look at it. "If this is the world, then how did our dear, treacherous Valuans get from here," she pointed at Ixa'taka, "To here?" And she used a finger on the far side of the map to tap over Yafutoma.

Aika squinted and made a face. "There's an answer you're driving towards. If I say magic, you're going to make fun of me."

"No more than usual, beloved." Fina reassured her. "But no, it is not magic. It is not any strange or nebulous force."

"Nebulous?" Vyse repeated, smirking. "Now there's a seven-coin word."

"I read a lot as a young girl, Vyse, shut up." Fina stuck her tongue out at him, and Aika cackled as Vyse grinned back at Fina.

"You stick that out at me again, I'm going to think that's an invitation, Fina." Fina rolled her eyes at him and wiggled her map. Their man chuffed twice. "Right. The question." Vyse tapped a finger on the table. "Um. If you fly off one side of the map, do you somehow end up back on the other?"

"No. Well, not in the way you're probably thinking." Fina motioned for them to clear the table a little, and once a space had been made in the middle, she set his napkin down. Vyse and Aika leaned over it a little, scrutinizing it. "If you fly north, would you end up at the southern tip?"

"No?" Aika said, far less confidently. Fina gave her an encouraging nod. The redhead huffed and folded her arms beneath her breasts. "I don't get it."

"It's all right." Fina comforted her. "Cupil?" At her command, her silvery companion separated from her wrist and floated above the table as the roly-poly ball she'd first met him as. There was a slight inhale of air from Aika at the sight of him, and Fina caught her blushing as she remembered last night's more unusual events. Her eyes flickered over to Vyse and she caught him blushing a little as well when he remembered his part in helping her to _prepare_ for it, and Fina smiled.

"Relax, you two." She chided them, and Cupil settled onto the table with a wave of her hand. "We all know how gravity works, right?"

"Yeah. It's what pulls stuff down. Apples, battered ships that lose their condensors...people." Aika nodded. "The cannons on the _Delphinus_ are gravity-mounted. Most big turrets are."

"Well. Gravity affects planets, too." Fina went on conversationally, pulling up her napkin map. "And planets have to follow the rules of gravity, just like everything else does. But planets being much larger? Well. Imagine the center of the world. Gravity says that everything has to fall down, right? In this case, towards the center of the world." Cupil floated up just a hand's width off the table, and Fina poked at his side, smiling when her finger sank into its skin, like a puffy marshmallow.

Marshmallows. She missed those.

"So, if everything falls down towards the center of the world, and if Admiral Belleza and that _rapist_ got here to Yafutoma by traveling west from Ixa'taka…" Fina said leadingly. And still Vyse and Aika blinked, trying to figure it out but failing to make those important connections.

Ah well. They must be visual learners. Fina exhaled and took the map, and wrapped it around Cupil, who adjusted its size at her nudges and built up enough of a static charge that the napkin stuck until…

Until the flat map of the world was wrapped completely around Cupil's spherical body, and the right edge of the map holding Yafutoma lined up just shy of the left edge and Ixa'taka.

Vyse's eyes went wide. Aika gasped. Fina just smiled and nudged Cupil with a finger, and the sphere of the world...the _globe,_ really, spun gently on its axis.

"You think the sun moves in the sky. It doesn't, not relative to Arcadia." Fina grinned. "Arcadia spins, and the part we stand on passes into the sunlight and back out of it again. Sunrise...sunset. Every turn of the world is another day."

"Holy shit." Vyse whispered. "The world is _round?"_

Fina tapped at the boundary between Ixa'taka and Yafutoma and nodded. "You can't get to the south pole by traveling north. But. You _can_ get to the other side of the world going east or west."

"Because there aren't _sides,_ it's just…" Aika said, and hesitated.

"One big world." Vyse finished, reaching a hand out and tracing his fingers over the map on Cupil wonderingly.

"One big, endless world." Fina agreed, humming in satisfaction. They knew now. They knew the shape of the world. One more not-secret that she had shared with them, that they were ready for. There were others, but those would come in time. "Ramirez knows this, too. Undoubtedly, he told Galcian and the Admiralty. That's how they got here." She said, turning grim at the end.

"Nobody else knows this, though." Vyse realized. "Nobody else ever _dreamed_ of this. And if Valua's military leadership thinks they can keep this a secret…" He paused, and his grin went incredibly wide. "It's a Discovery. It's _the_ Discovery."

"Cha-ching." Aika said, and started laughing. Fina did as well. The Sailor's Guild would lose its _mind_ when Vyse sold them the information. There was one detail that Fina had forgotten about Vyse though, swept up as she was in the educational moment.

Vyse got turned on when she and Aika were brilliant.

He was pulling her up to her feet and bruising her lips with powerful kisses then, and his hands cradled her ass and pulled her flush to his body. She whimpered, thrilled at her Pirate's brazen advances, and buried her hands in his hair, tugging his eyepiece off and throwing it to the floor, forgotten.

"I want you." Vyse groaned, and nudged his pelvis against hers, making her shiver as she felt him pressing hard into her thigh. "Moons, I need to feel you. _Now._ Aika, get the table…"

"What?" Fina gasped, pulling back from his beautiful lips to look behind her, where a dark-eyed and aroused Aika was already clearing their breakfast dishes. Cupil had let go of the map and now floated overhead in a lazy circle above them. "Vyse!" She gasped his name, as he pressed his lips to her throat and sucked her skin into his mouth, biting down on it just hard enough that it would leave a mark. "Vyse, we can't! It's not safe! Our medicine…"

"I don't need my...my _manhood_ to love you." Vyse growled out, and his jaw dipped lower to the top of her breastbone, where he licked at the exposed skin there.

"He has fingers. He has a tongue. And he has lips and teeth." Aika added helpfully. Damn it, Aika was using her own words from last night against her. Fina swooned, and it didn't help when Vyse picked her up effortlessly and laid her out on the table, sprawled onto her back. It didn't help when Aika bent over her and kissed her stupid, all while sliding her hands under Fina's robe to caress and stroke her before she peeled the fabric off of her, exposing her bare skin to the crisp morning air.

"Buh...breakfast. What about breakfast?" Fina whimpered, trying desperately to pull them back from their effortless seduction.

Vyse knelt between her legs and she saw him smile, his brown eyes visible over the rise of her pillowy breasts and heaving abdomen. And the bastard didn't say a word. He just licked his lips, smirked at her and winked before his head ducked down.

"I think he's hungry for _Fina_ this morning." Aika hummed, and licked Fina's earlobe before kissing her hard.

Fina felt his tongue and moaned his name into Aika's mouth as the redhead claimed her. She had given them the world.

They made her see stars.

* * *

_212 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Ryu-Kan's Island_

They had meant to leave Yafutoma with three merchant vessels following them in convoy, but had ended up with four thanks to one vessel whose captain had thrown himself at the feet of Prince Daigo and the newly christened Foreign Minister Laurette of Yafutoma the morning of their departure. Fina knew the look of love better than most, and there were sparks of it there between Prince Daigo and the girl from Esperanza whom everyone (Even Fina herself) had underestimated. She and Aika had apologized to her for not seeing her true potential the night of the dance where she had declared herself and freed Moegi to chase after her own dream, but Fina had gone a step further the morning they left. She had pressed a Sacrum spell crystal into Laurette's palm when nobody was watching them, and told her to protect what was most precious to her. Fina hoped that she would never need it, but Yafutoma still had a long ways to go until it was settled again.

Two days later, Fina found herself sitting in the house of the greatest swordsmith in three generations, part of the usual expeditionary contingent of four but with the addition of Princess Moegi, who had volunteered to serve as translator. Moegi was silent as they all sat across the table from the hermetic craftsman, everyone but Vyse sitting in the kneeling position favored by the Yafutomans. Her brown-haired lover preferred to go cross-legged as they all drank tea and waited for the old man to speak.

Ryu-Kan had a long and bladed beak of a nose, and though he was wrinkled and faded, his arms didn't shake with palsy like some elderly people Fina had met throughout her mission to retrieve the Moon Crystals. His eyes were as sharp as the swords that he had been famous for crafting in his younger days. To Fina, it seemed as though he had been examining them all with careful scrutiny since they had ventured inside of his distant home, like he was looking for some excuse to refuse them. He'd taken one cursory look at Princess Moegi and Aika and Fina and focused the bulk of his attention on Vyse instead. How had this old Yafutoman known that of the five young people who had stumbled into his secret abode, that Vyse was their leader? Surely someone as storied as Ryu-Kan would have noticed how Enrique's clothes were finer, that the exiled prince was Vyse's elder by a span of years. Vyse did not have the regal bearing of Enrique or Moegi, or the practiced mien that Fina's early years and her training had drilled into her. He was rough and open and direct when there was no cause for subterfuge, a man to whom artifice never sat well on.

_"What is this man's name?"_ Ryu-Kan finally said, breaking the companionable silence that had been in place since the tea had been poured. Under squinted eyelids, he never looked away from Vyse. For his part, Vyse didn't look away either. Fina wondered if either of them had so much as blinked.

_"He is Vyse, Captain of the _Delphinus_ and a powerful Blue Rogue. He is a friend of the Tokugawas and a defender of Yafutoma. It is because of him that Yafutoma still stands, and is no longer occupied by a foreign power."_ Princess Moegi answered. Vyse didn't flicker an iota of his attention away from the swordsmith, a sign of how much he trusted Moegi and Fina to handle negotiations.

Ryu-Kan hummed in reply and folded his arms. _"And what does he seek of me?"_

_"For you to join him."_ Fina said, taking Moegi's place in the conversation. The old and wiry Yafutoman harrumphed.

_"If he wants a Dragon Sword, there are many in the Empire available. And many fools willing to be parted from them for money."_

Fina smiled, ignoring her teacup for the mark of stretching for time that it was. She was no naive fool, not any longer. Vyse and Aika had shown her how to find her courage, how to demonstrate confidence even when it was lacking. _"Why do you live here? A maker with your talent?"_

_ "I am old and I am bitter. I have seen the weapons I poured my heart into put to wrong ends. The world is too full of fools. Only the determined will seek me out. Only the wise will know both sides of their blade. Only the daring will be worthy of my work."_

So. Self-inflicted exile. So like Ilchymis, but yet different. Where Ilchymis had left to pursue healing and to avoid conscription, Ryu-Kan had left to live as an ascetic, knowing the value and the power of his trade, and not wanting the foolish to claim them any longer.

_"You will only aid the worthy."_ Fina said thoughtfully.

_"Yes."_

Fina gestured to Vyse. _"He sits before you."_

Ryu-Kan's slitted eyes opened a fraction more. _"I would hear him make his request directly."_

Fina blinked. _"He does not speak Yafutoman."_ The old man scowled a little bit.

_"What is important requires no words. Let this _Vai-su_ speak for himself."_

Fina turned her head, and the movement at last made Vyse turn his eyes to her. "Ryu-Kan wants you to speak to him. Even though you don't know Yafutoman."

"As he likes." Vyse said in a drawl, raising a hand when Enrique made to protest. "He wants to measure me up, 'Rique. Considering what we came here to ask him for, I can't exactly say that it isn't a terrible request." Vyse looked back to Ryu-Kan and reached up, removing his telescopic eyepiece. Fina's fingers bunched in the hem of her dress, because he rarely did so save in their bedroom.

"Master Ryu-Kan." Vyse said, his eyes burning as he sat up as straight as he could, bracing his hands on his knees. "Princess Moegi has spoken of you, from what little she knows. You are renowned among your people, your weapons were peerless. I do not know exactly why you left, but I have my guesses, and I will keep them to myself. What I will say to you is this; **you are needed.** Two weeks ago, we fought to save Yafutoma. But the world itself is still in peril. I seek the boldest and the bravest and the most skilled to be on my crew. And my crew deserves the best." His brown irises glinted with flecks of blue as his spiritual power rose up unbidden, summoned by emotion alone. "Maybe you believe that you are at the end of your life, and that you can learn nothing more. You would be wrong. If you want to reach new heights of your craft, then come with me. If you want your weapons to be used not to bring terror, but to end it, then come with me. If you are tired and have been waiting for the right man, the right cause, the _right reason_ to make weapons again? Then you will come. With. Me."

He had been leaning forward a bit more at every sentence, and at the end he was tipped almost completely over the table, staring the old swordmaker down. Ryu-Kan never flinched or withdrew, never showed a sign that he was cowed. He just waited until Vyse was done and raised an eyebrow, and then Vyse nodded and pulled back away.

_"There is steel in your leader."_

_ "Steel enough."_ Fina replied. _"Steel enough in his heart and in his arms that Prince Daigo Tokugawa took the Oath of the Blue Rogues from him, steel enough that sailors and warriors and healers and makers from around the world now sail with him."_

Ryu-Kan made a small noise, and closed his eyes as he nodded. _"And the little princess I knew before I left for my solitude now sails with him. Very well. I will make him a sword."_

Fina smiled. _"We do not want just one sword. We seek a master craftsman to arm us. And we have a challenge for you."_

_"Steel is steel, whether it holds a moonstone core or not."_ Ryu-Kan dismissed the idea.

Moegi shook her head. _"Honored Elder, that is not true. The Blue Rogues of the West have brought you a great challenge. They wish you to make weapons of an entirely new breed."_ She turned to Aika. "Show him."

"Oh, I've been waiting for this." The redhead murmured, and reached into her satchel. Fina knew she was shuffling past the Moon Crystals of red and green and blue by the tinkling sound they made as they tapped at one another, and she came up with the souvenir that they had brought with them. It was perhaps ten inches long, dense yet lighter than one would think possible, and the light coming in through the windows of Ryu-Kan's small home and forge made it gleam brightly.

It was a piece of Bluheim's wing that had been salvaged off of the deck, scraped off and cleaned of the blood that had coated it. Aika set it on the table in front of him, and Ryu-Kan snapped it up, quickly and carefully scrutinizing it.

_"What is this?"_ He demanded, turning it this way and that, holding it up to the light, and then finally pulling out a small hammer from behind him and giving it a small tap, listening to the sound it made. _"This is not Moonsteel! This is not iron! What is this?"_

Princess Moegi hummed and smoothed out a wrinkle in her gown, then slipped her hand back into the large muffler at the end of her sleeve. _"That is a piece of the ancient weapon of war which our distant ancestors of the Blue Civilization created. That is a piece of Bluheim, who was the source of all our myths about the Divine Wind. That is a piece of the weapon which the traitor Kangan Kurowei tried to use first to subdue our people, and then destroy them when he began losing. Bluheim is dead now, and our kingdom is safe. It was Captain Vyse and his ship and his crew who were responsible for our salvation. Now he asks you to come and turn the many hundreds of stone's worth of bone and skin and scale and wing we have taken from Bluheim's corpse and make it into something better."_

Ryu-Kan must have thought that there was little which could impress him. He'd certainly had that feeling about him when they had come in. That was all gone now, though. There was only flabbergasted wonder, and a small, but rising sense of frustration.

_"This is too dense! Too hard! My forge cannot go hot enough to melt this down!"_

Fina grinned. _"With the moonstones you have at your disposal, and the furnaces available to you, that is true. But where we are going, there are forges that blaze hotter. There are Moonstones that glow with the power of the sun and the raging inferno. Vyse offers you a purpose. He offers you a challenge. Do you have enough strength to make a masterwork beyond peer? Do you have enough strength to help us save the world?"_

Ryu-Kan scowled and set the piece of Bluheim back down on the table, but Fina could tell that it was all bluster. The old swordmaker was hooked like a landed skyfish, and she was reminded of something that Don of Esperanza had said once about the merchant who'd sold them the engine piece they'd needed, with only a trace of bitterness in the remembrance. How if Vyse wanted someone to join him, that he would have them, for no one could stand against his charisma.

Vyse smiled and nodded, and Ryu-Kan exhaled and bowed his head in return.

_"I will need time to pack up my belongings."_ Ryu-Kan said, gesturing behind him. Vyse must have read the intent of his gesture, because he stood up.

"We'd better help you then. Come on, Enrique. Fina, have him tell us how he wants us to pack it up."

_"What is he doing?"_ Ryu-Kan asked Fina curiously.

_"He is helping you. We all will help you prepare for our journey."_

_"He is a great lord! Such menial work is beneath him!"_ Ryu-Kan protested.

_"You will find, Honored Elder, that Vyse is unlike any lord you have ever known."_ Princess Moegi said, standing up as well and smiling gently. _"He gives no order he would not carry out himself."_

Fina picked up her teacup and drained it all down in two swallows, savoring the taste on her tongue after now that it was lukewarm. It was rather good tea after all.

She looked forward to seeing what kind of swords and boomerangs Ryu-Kan could make as well.

* * *

_The Eastern Yafutoman Wilderness_

_217 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Their voyage eastwards proved to have more hiccups and bumps in it than most would have preferred. They got caught in a squall after flying back south and finally turning east, which didn't rattle the _Delphinus_ all that much, but forced the merchant ships to fly high above them in the Upper Sky to avoid it, which in turn forced them to slow down so the smaller vessels could keep pace with them. It took two days for the storm to clear, and by the time it finally did, Moegi was in a sorry state. It took Fina a moment to catch on that she was going through her courses, what with all the fretting around her that her two ladies in waiting did, and she used the opportunity to escort her down to Ilchymis for a consult and treatment.

After Ilchymis had talked with Moegi about her options with Fina providing moral and medical support, the Yafutoman princess had been give the first dose of her own anti-ovulant regimen and a phial with a month's supply of pills to help with cramps, and orders to head back to her room and take the rest of the day off. Fina had been more than happy to go with Moegi and escort her safely there. Fina's role aboard the _Delphinus_ was less clearly defined than Vyse's or Aika's, and it gave her a freedom to move about and address concerns and issues with the crew that her partners lacked. It allowed her to see things that other people might have missed. Like right now, as they were inside the cabin set aside for Princess Moegi's use (And the use of her two ladies in waiting) after the Yafutoman royal had changed into slimmer garments meant for sleeping, Moegi sent the pair off to fetch her some tea and then promptly went to fidgeting with her hands.

"Moegi?" Fina ventured carefully, sitting beside the girl who was two years older than her. "You seem distracted."

"What does love look like to Westerners?" Moegi blurted out, and Fina blinked at the abrupt shift in the conversation.

"What do you mean?" And Moegi fidgeted even more, rubbing her ankles together as she struggled with herself.

"The...how you are. With Aika, and Vyse." Moegi said, blushing, and Fina smiled a bit. "Is that normal?"

"Not - not exactly. I'm new to the ways of Mid-Ocean, but it feels like most people in the 'West' are more monogamous." Fina explained, pausing before adding, "That means they only love one person."

"No, not that." Moegi shook her head, blushing even more. "How you...how you show your love. The touches. The embracing. The kisses."

Fina blinked, and thought back to where Moegi might have seen the three of them displaying affection so openly. They were typically discreet aboard the _Delphinus,_ but there had been...Oh, right. During the boarding action before they fought the Armada and Bluheim. She remembered their frantic, desperate kisses and the promises they'd made, and how Vyse had scooped her up into his arms for the jump. "Ah. That. Yes. More or less. Of course, I don't think that the three of us make a good representative sample, but most lovers do those things. Not always _openly,_ most prefer to keep such behind closed doors, but they do. Or they should."

Moegi absorbed that and slowly nodded her head. She seemed sadder for Fina's answer. "And if they do not do these things?"

"Then they aren't interested, probably."

"Oh." And Moegi's face shuttered off as she crumpled a bit more.

Fina went from curious to concerned. "Moegi? What's wrong?" She asked, reaching out and touching the young woman's shoulder.

"I do not think that Enrique is attracted to me."

Fina blinked rapidly. "But you...really? I never got that impression."

"He is polite." Moegi explained, counting the points off on her fingers. "He is respectful and attentive. But he never...not like Vyse is with you. Or how you are with Aika."

"Oh my." Fina blushed a little as she realized what Moegi was driving at. Enrique hadn't kissed her yet? Or held her? Had he even _held her hand_ while looking into her eyes yet, for crying out loud?! "And you want that."

Moegi's jaw clenched for a bit. "I am jealous of what you have. But I must be wrong. I must have seen something that wasn't there."

"No, he feels strongly about you. Please, Moegi. Believe me." Fina urged her, squeezing her arm.

"I want to." Moegi confessed, shaking her head. "But I do not see it. And he does not tell me this. He does not do what Vyse does with you."

Fina thought about it. "You know, it could be that he's just trying to be polite. He's royalty, you know. And so are you. What if there's rules he's trying to follow, and that is what's frustrating you?"

Moegi glared at Fina. "Is he blind? I want no such rules of courtship! That was how it was in Yafutoma! Observed visits, arranged marriages! There are some daughters who meet their husbands only once before their ceremony there! Is it like that for him as well?"

"I don't think so?" Fina wagered hesitantly. "But, he is also a man, Moegi. And men can be...rather stupid sometimes. Vyse certainly was."

Moegi settled down a little. "How so?"

"He didn't tell us how he felt about loving the both of us and not being able to choose. Not until it was almost too late." Fina explained. "The weeks we were separated, Aika and I worked it out and I confessed that I loved her as much as I did Vyse, and when we got back together, we were able to patch it up. But he was on his own for all that time, tearing himself apart because he thought his love was wrong. Men can be frustratingly stupid, Moegi. The thing that drives me crazy about all the stories I read growing up was just how many problems could be solved if the characters in them actually approached their problems like adults and _talked_ to each other about how they were feeling, and what was bothering them." The Silvite peered at Moegi. "You need to _talk_ to him. You need to tell him how you feel. You need to demand that he tells you how he feels."

The Yafutoman royal blushed and ducked her head. "I could not. It...it is not proper."

Fina groaned a little. "Damn it. This is a cultural thing, isn't it?"

"A woman of good breeding...she should not...um. Act first." Moegi whispered, her face as red as Fina had ever seen it.

"You're waiting for Enrique to take the first step."

"If he wishes to."

"Oh, he _wishes_ to, but he's stuck in his Prince Charming mindset. Honestly." Fina stood up and paced around the cabin, harrumphing at the thick-headedness of royalty. Moegi, held back from making a move because of her cultural norms and upbringing, and Enrique unwilling to for the _exact same reason._

She felt a sudden urge to throw them into an empty room together with food and water for three days and scream at them to just sleep with each other and get it over with. Not that she would do that, but it was becoming abundantly clear to her that Enrique and Moegi needed a little prodding along. And thankfully, she had read enough romance novels during her time on the Silver Shrine that she had _ideas._

Fina stopped pacing and nodded. It could work. "You know, Moegi, there are ways that you could show him you're interested...without stealing the first overture of affection from him."

"There are?" Moegi blinked. "Like what?"

Fina grinned. "We'll be in Ixa'taka pretty soon. And trust me on this...it's a lot warmer there than it was in your homeland."

Moegi considered that. "How does that help?"

Fina giggled, and then giggled even louder when she saw how concerned Moegi was looking at her wild idea.

* * *

_Ixa'taka_

_Horteka Village, Centime's Campgrounds_

_220 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

It was strange to think that almost three months had passed since the _Delphinus_ had last flown through the skies of Ixa'taka. So much had changed since then. They'd proven that the Southern Ocean could be crossed safely - if one flew with the wind and knew how to look out for hazards - had fought the 2nd and 3rd and 4th Fleets of the Armada, conquered the Dark Rift, slain a Gigas, and saved a kingdom (empire) from foreign occupation and an admittedly well-timed coup.

Fina had known that there would be changes elsewhere in the world as well, but seeing it firsthand in Ixa'taka still took her back. It had been nothing but sheer relief when the _Iron Clad_ had come into view, because the ship hadn't been flying when she'd last seen it. Of course, she'd been with Aika and Ilchymis going into the Rixis ruins to tell her 'uncle' about his family's forgotten legacy. It was a sign that some, if not most of the changes might be good. She hoped for most.

Centime now had a mixed crew, made up mostly of Ixa'takans as he'd been running more of an orphanage than a resistance since that fateful storm had tossed them into the green lands. Vyse congratulated him on the move and shook the hands of the native sailors. Fina could understand why. Centime was teaching them how to be sailors and engineers, but there were other skills as well that were tied to that. The Blue Rogue was teaching them everything they needed to fly modern ships of their own in combat. He was teaching them how to go to war against Valua. And none too soon, because while his crew sailed the _Iron Clad_ back home to Horteka as escort for the _Delphinus,_ the wizened engineer spun them a harrowing story of an enormous expeditionary force from the Armada who had passed through, indomitable in its might and forced the Ixa'takans to go to ground. Centime had thought it was the counterstrike, a push by Valua to reclaim Ixa'taka while Vyse was away and the Blue Rogues were scattered. It had been sheer relief on their part when the Armada swept around the edge of the northern piece of the continent and didn't set to raiding or laying down conflagrations. That relief had turned to worry and concern when the _Draco_ had opened fire with its enormous bow-mounted cannon and blasted a hole clean through the massive stone reef that made up the western border of Ixa'takan airspace, and _flown through it._ It had begged the question, if the Armada wasn't after Ixa'taka...what _were_ they after?

Vyse had all afternoon and evening to spin the tale once they made landfall in Horteka. While Tikatika resumed his vigil at the topmost part of the island and runners were selected to pass messages between the _Delphinus_ and the rest of the crew who were on shore leave, Hans and Lapen disembarked (With Lawrence stubbornly following them) to see to the maintenance of their adopted father's docked vessel. Merida sought out the tavern where she had once worked and spread the word among the population of Horteka of their return from the end of the world, and it didn't take long for a roaring party to come into life.

Of course, Centime's campgrounds had always had a more raucous air about them. How could they not, when they were filled with children always running around, playing, doing chores and learning things from Carol and Centime and the older children? It was just much louder now, more packed. More energetic. The old men of Esperanza spun tale after tale of 'the good old days' before Valua became an Empire, almost every member of the crew had an account to share about Vyse and 'Miss Aika' and 'Miss Fina' that the young ones, Mid-Ocean and Ixa'takan heritage alike, soaked up in earnest. What Fina hadn't seen before and cursed herself for now were the handful of children who were clearly of mixed parentage. As they had no parents to claim them and any attempt by the adults to ask them about it made them close off and go stone-faced, the reason for that was abundantly clear.

But they were with people who loved them for who they were now, and cared for them regardless of the circumstances of their birth. Centime was fighting plenty of battles, and to Fina's eyes, the most important ones didn't take a single cannonball to win.

There was one objective that Fina and Aika had agreed on before weighing anchor, and that had meant that Moegi had been dragged off by the redhead the moment they set foot on land. The downside of it though was that it made Fina the only semi-literate Yafutoman translator available on the ship for the four merchant vessels who had come along. So while Aika went off to give Moegi a special Ixa'takan makeover, she found herself stuck between a bunch of Yafutoman merchant captains and an equally irascible host of Ixa'takan sellers for nearly three hours while they argued over everything from the price of rice to the currency exchange rate of Ryo to gold coins, and after the deals were done, they settled on having an argument over whether _sake_ or Loqua was the better alcoholic beverage. At that point, Fina threw her hands up in the air and walked off to join the rest of the party. The sellers didn't need her help getting drunk, that was a universal constant.

The first people from the crew that she saw were Hans and Lapen, who were still the stars of the show, although they'd moved to the small foredeck of the _Iron Clad_ and were apparently giving a small lesson on moonstone engine maintenance to the younger children, who peered over the small engine block that they'd yanked out of one of the _Delphinus_ skiffs to use as an example.

"Now, what you really have to look out for here are the pressure fittings." Lapen said to them all, sounding remarkably serious while one of the younger children sat piled in Hans' lap up close to the action. "Especially on bigger ships. Something little like this, if there's a spot where the soldering wasn't good enough, there's not enough pressure in the steam valves to do much more than steam up and slow you down a little until you can seal it up. But on the _Delphinus?_ We have all kinds of pressure gauges and monitors _everywhere_ in the ship, especially the main lines between our moonstone reactors and the reciprocating engines. There's so much pressure there that if we didn't make sure to watch out for leaks, it could do a lot of damage."

"How muchth damage, big brother?" A gap-toothed boy with fussy brown hair lisped, and Fina had to cover her mouth to hide the smile. She wondered if Vyse had been that precious when he was little.

Lapen whistled lowly, and glanced up past Hans to Lawrence, who was leaned up against the rail of the ship looking almost bored, if not for the sharpness in his eyes as he watched the little demonstration. "Gee. A lot. Hans? Got any ideas?"

"Our dad Centime told me once that he saw a slim leak in a pressure line once, and he just barely shouted and warned another sailor about it who was going by with a mop. The other sailor turned and stopped, but the mop he had over his shoulder got cut clean in half by it." Hans said steadily. The children oohed in wide-eyed wonder, and Lapen made a grunt.

"Right. So what's the first rule of working on a ship, kids?"

"Be CAREFUL!" They all shouted out, and Lapen smirked and nodded, reaching a hand out and slapping his younger adopted brother on the arm.

"Glad to know that you and the old man are still pounding that lesson into their heads." He complimented Hans with a warm smile completely devoid of his usual sarcasm, and Hans reached over and punched Lapen's arm in the same spot lightly.

"Dad knows what's important." Hans told him, and the two of them looked over to where Centime was sitting in the camp around a roaring fire by Vyse and Enrique just in time to see his wife Carol come over with a smile and three mugs of something for them. Vyse gratefully took both, and Centime thanked her by pulling her down into his lap and giving her a kiss that had her wrapping her arms around his shoulders while the others laughed.

"Yeah." Lapen hummed, and his honest smile widened. "He really does." Fina was touched at how different Lapen was now than when they had first met him. He'd been so angry, so destructive, so bent on burning the world down. But now? Now, he had his family back, and friends. He was settled and content. And they had given that to him.

Fina walked away without saying a word to them, and meandered towards the central campfire in time to hear the tail end of the conversation that Vyse and Centime had been having.

"...after you turn the state of the world on its head, what's your next move?" Centime asked. Vyse took another swallow of his mug full of something, considering.

"Getting back to Crescent Island." The Blue Rogue said. "The _Delphinus_ took a beating and we've fixed up what we could, but the ship's in need of repairs. And we need to give it a refit anyways. I just hope that Brabham and Izmael have things set up and ready for us. And that the Nasrian Home Fleet was helpful."

"Will you be taking the Southern Ocean route again?" Centime inquired, and Fina went still for a moment. Vyse caught the motion and looked over to see her, then smiled before shaking his head.

"No. I think we'll just cut through the sky rifts this time, cross Mid-Ocean proper." He glanced over to where his two newest crewmembers were gathered together by the cookfires, a pair of Yafutoman sisters who had joined up on Prince Daigo's request and recommendation. Kirala and Urala, a carpenter and a cook respectively who were both stunningly beautiful. He hadn't had much of an opportunity to speak with them, but Moegi had, and Fina had found them both bright and capable and assertive. Although, there was something in the way that Kirala stood some days that made Fina think the carpenter knew more than her trade, and there was something in the watchfulness of Urala's eyes that pricked the same lingering sense. "We've got a lot of people who could use some more exposure to different folks in Mid-Ocean. We'll be making a stop in Nasrad, though. Have some things to pick up, and one of our crew has family in Maramba that they wanted to go see."

"Sounds as though you'll be busy." Centime hummed cheerfully, and Enrique gave a commiserating nod as Vyse sighed.

"Yeah. Busy's the word for it, all right. I'm almost amazed at how much we've gotten done. How much we have left to do." Vyse rubbed at the back of his head. "I could use a break."

"If you can spare the time, you might want to." Centime suggested. "You can't spend all your time fighting. Not even your father could keep up a wartime pace forever."

Fina took that moment to venture into the conversation. "You know, we could use a little vacation. After all of our victories. A chance to get away from everything?" Vyse brightened up at that idea.

"Yeah?" He said, trying to avoid sounding too eager. "Well. Might be we'll have to do something to celebrate being alive. Just the three of us."

Fina smirked. "I think that sounds wonderful."

"Oh, please." Enrique huffed and drank his mug completely dry.

"Is something wrong, Enrique?" Vyse asked him innocently.

"Don't even _start,_ Vyse." Enrique muttered, looking away from the Blue Rogue. And then he promptly choked on air and stared at something with wide eyes. Fina turned to track in the direction he was staring, and beamed when she saw Aika and Moegi wandering their way. How could she not, when Aika looked so beautiful strutting towards them _with her hair down_ in the way that Fina knew drove Vyse crazy, and Moegi was blushing in a very attractive fashion. The both of them were wearing Ixa'takan fashion, which meant very little clothing at all in the moist heat that pervaded the green lands. A two-piece bikini, cloth that was more alluring to look at than breast bindings, loose sandals made for the terrain, and a square of cloth spun from one of the native plants that draped along one side of their hip and was tied off at the other, covering their front but exposing nearly all of one leg.

"Hey, Vyse!" Aika greeted them cheerfully, and Fina knew she wasn't imagining the hard swallow that their lover gave as he stared at Aika. "This is some party. I figured we could get into the spirit of things, dress up like the locals." She spun around, keeping one hand on her ever-present satchel. "How do I look?"

"You look wonderful." Vyse said, beaming at her.

"Well, good. I was gonna punch you in the arm if you said I looked awful." Aika teased him, flicking her head back enough to make her hair bounce. Fina pressed a hand to her throat as the redhead looked over to her. "I've got one for you too if you want it, Princess."

"Sure. I'd love to try wearing one. It looks...fun." Fina said easily. And then she turned to Enrique, knowing what to say next as part of the plan. "What do you think, Enrique?"

"Um?" Enrique got out, still staring with that same gobsmacked look on his face.

Moegi brought a hand up to the side of her head and brushed some of her silky dark hair away from her eyes. "Do I look beautiful, Enrique?" She asked him. Timidly. Shyly.

Enrique swallowed even harder than Vyse had. "You look like a goddess." He blinked rapidly, then stood up and averted his eyes. "Excuse me. I have to...I…" And then he walked away, his back rigid and his hands clenched into fists, leaving the party completely.

Fina's smile withered as she watched Moegi's shy confidence die off in moments. Aika quickly hugged the young woman. "Hey, it's okay. He said you looked beautiful."

"He called you a goddess." Vyse added, trying to sound helpful. "That's better than beautiful."

"See? Better than beautiful!" Aika went on, giving him a mock stink-eye. "Vyse never calls _me_ a goddess."

"Then why did he leave?" Moegi asked the three of them in a hurt voice. "Why can't he even look at me?"

Fina found that she didn't have a ready answer waiting on her tongue to that.

* * *

_Mid-Ocean_

_223 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

Horteka was on the eastern side of Ixa'taka to begin with, so when they departed and cut through the sky rift that separated it from the tail end of the North Ocean and kept on going until they reached Mid-Ocean, it didn't take very much time at all. But then again, they'd cleared the Southern Ocean in 7 days riding with the wind, so...perspective. Fina hadn't been expecting the now familiar schooner of "The Angel of Death" to be waiting for them, but she cut in close before Tikatika could get out more than a minute's warning and hooked her smaller ship to the foredeck's railing.

Piastol had been working on improving herself, but her ferocity meant little in the face of the coordinated teamwork between Vyse, Fina, Aika, and Enrique. With one stubborn set of attacks and parries after another, they blunted her attacks, deflected her spells, and wore her down with Vyse and Enrique double-teaming her in precise swordwork. And through it all, Fina healed and augmented and made the evidence of the silver-haired girl's attacks vanish.

The fight ended as all the others before had, with Piastol kneeling on the deck while Vyse held a sword over her. This time, at least, she hadn't lost her scythe.

"You still won't kill me?" Piastol snarled at him, blood from a grazing cut on her forehead.

Vyse shook his head and withdrew his sword. "Tell me something, Piastol. What is your problem with me? What have I ever done to you to make you hunt me down time and time again?"

"You have the gall to stand there and play dumb?" Piastol ground out, forcing herself back to her feet. She wobbled a bit, but stayed upright, and kept on going. "Fine, then. It all happened a little over 7 years ago. My father was a Valuan admiral, and one night, I woke up to find our ship on fire. When I got up to the deck, I saw an air pirate ship flying nearby. I didn't know who was still alive, but I had been taught what to do, and made for the lifeboats. And that was when I saw a bratty air pirate girl and a boy coming aboard. That boy was _you,_ Vyse." She pointed at him. "The scar on your cheek you received saving your friend from my throwing knife before I ran and got away. I lost everyone that night. My father, my sister…" There were hot tears in her eyes. "You and your pirate friends took everything I loved. That's why I became the Angel of Death. That's why I hunt your kind down."

"And yet you're wanted for acts of piracy by Valua also." Enrique hummed.

Vyse had a puzzled look on his face, and Fina saw him share a glance with Aika before he turned back to Piastol. "I think you've been operating under a severe misunderstanding. I remember that night, and neither Aika nor myself were armed. We didn't attack your ship, we sure as hell didn't set it on fire. Our ship was coming to _render assistance_ when you attacked us. The thing you're accusing me, accusing us of being responsible for? You have the wrong guy."

Piastol stood quiet for several seconds, stunned at it, and then roared and shook her head wildly. "No! You're lying! All air pirates lie!" She lifted her scythe off of the deck and pointed it at him, which made Fina gasp. Vyse didn't even flinch, which might have been due to how she stumbled at losing the support of it. "I'll come for you one more time, Vyse. I'm going to train until you don't stand a chance of beating me, and when that day comes, I will have my vengeance for the deaths of my family."

Vyse sighed. "I figured you might say that. Just leave your marker at the sailor's guild for me like usual then. This time, you jumped us without any warning."

"Oh, I left my black spot at the guild for you." Piastol snapped. "But I wasn't expecting you to come through a sky rift. You were supposed to be in Nasrad."

Vyse blinked. "Why would we be in Nasrad?"

Piastol turned and started limping for her ship, tied up alongside the _Delphinus._ "Because that's where the gossip said you and your two little girlfriends have been for the past two weeks. Stirring up trouble and making a right nuisance of yourselves while your ship was flying elsewhere. Valua was sending a cruiser to capture you." She looked back over her shoulder, her eyes murderous. "I'm glad that the rumors were false. The only one who gets to take your life, Vyse, is me."

"You will try." Fina snapped at the girl, and her eyes blazed silver. _**"And you will always fail."**_

Piastol pointed back at her. "Next time, I'm killing you first." Aika and Vyse both leapt in front of Fina at that, with Enrique growling lowly.

"Leave. Now." The exiled prince declared. And with one last huff, Piastol, the 'Angel of Death' did just that, dragging herself on board her ship and sailing off to lick her wounds.

"We're getting better or these fights are getting easier." Vyse finally remarked.

"You're getting better, but you're far from the level you need to be to defeat Galcian." Enrique tempered his enthusiasm. "Sword practice. Tomorrow morning. We've been slacking off. I think you're capable of greater depths than you know."

"Fair enough." Vyse conceded. "Still, one thing puzzles me." He looked to Aika and Fina. "Why did people think we were in Nasrad when we've been sailing off of the map for two months?"

* * *

_Eastern Mid-Ocean_

_Within Sight of the North Danel Strait_

_225 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

They found the answer to that question not long after they paid another visit to Doc on his ship with the red and white striped sail and fed more Moonfish to Maria's (Much larger) pet bird. Maria was talking now instead of ringing that depressing bell all the time, and Fina had been heartbroken to hear that Doc had known Ramirez, who had been found on a strange ship unconscious after a storm and rescued by the former Admiral Mendosa.

It chipped away at Fina's already bruised feelings for Ramirez to learn that he had willingly served under another Valuan before Lord Galcian. He had protested the treatment of the Ixa'takans by the Empire, Doc had said, and nearly came to blows with Galcian before Mendosa's death.

In the vague memories of Doc's recollections she could see the Ramirez she had known. Honorable. Concerned for justice and the welfare of others. Utterly derisive of Galcian's brutal tactics and his policies on gathering power for the sake of power, and the rule of the strong over the weak. It was encouraging to hear that the boy she remembered fondly as the closest thing to a big brother she had growing up hadn't been the dead-eyed, cold-hearted monster who had spoken to her in the Nasrad harbor and in the Grand Fortress.

It broke her heart as she tried to riddle out what had happened to change him into Galcian's devoted and merciless right hand. It was another question and she hated having more than one question unanswered at a time. Vyse was still distracted with thoughts of how there could be such conflicting rumors concerning their whereabouts, and his running theory was that Belleza had set it up to flush them and their allies out of hiding.

They had made for the North Danel Strait after their visit with Doc, knowing that the _Delphinus_ had more than enough power in its engines to cross the infamous sky rifts safely. And that was where they stumbled across a Valuan ship just coming out of it, on a course for the Grand Fortress. Not a warship, though, this was a heavily modified transport built for a specific purpose.

The _Delphinus_ had stumbled across a Valuan prison ship, and in this particular instance, given where it had undoubtedly come from, the Code demanded that they intervene. In the end, all they'd had to do was fly up to the vessel and fire a warning shot across their bow, much to the consternation of Khazim.

The boarding party had collected the crew's weapons before moving to the holding cells kept belowdecks. Fina had been on the bridge with Vyse when the word came back from their men; there were only three prisoners kept aboard, and they were being taken to Ilchymis in the medical ward. What had been chilling were the inexact words that Enrique used to get Vyse's attention.

_"Captain? Sir, you're going to want to see this yourself."_ Vyse had looked to Fina for two seconds, nodded at her stare, and then told Enrique to head up to the bridge to take command, giving Don temporary status until he arrived. Then he'd headed down, and Fina stayed right on his heels.

Aika was already pacing outside the door, looking agitated. She looked up as they approached. "Oh, good. You're here."

"Why was Enrique so tense?"

"Because the Valuans thought they'd captured the three of us." Aika ground out, and swung the hatchway door in.

Inside, Ilchymis and two other members of the Esperanzan crew who'd had rudimentary first aid were cleaning up the three former prisoners. There were two young women and one young man. There was clear evidence of bruising on all of them, and the brown-haired man had one arm tucked into a sling.

Their appearance made Fina go cold, even as Vyse made a strangled little noise. Ilchymis glanced up from his work. "Ah, Captain. We've finished our examination and patched up the rescued captives as best we can for right now."

"Recommendations?" Vyse said curtly, as the three rescued souls looked at Vyse and Aika and Fina with haunted, guilty eyes.

Three souls who looked like palette-swapped versions of them. Fina's alternate dressed in black and had red eyes to go with her pale blond hair that was almost white. Traits of albinism. Aika's alternate had astonishingly purple hair braided up into pigtails, blue eyes instead of brown, and wore black leathers more revealing than the original. And Vyse's alternate had the eyepatch on the right side...but wore a _red_ coat, and had no scar under his left eye. Plenty of freckles, though.

"Rest. Some decent food." The physician and pharmacist answered gently. "The Valuans were none too gentle with them, and they weren't believers in regular meals."

"Thank you, doctor." Vyse said. He hadn't moved an inch since he stopped. He hadn't looked away from them. Fina was almost positive that he hadn't even blinked. "If you wouldn't mind, we'd like some time alone with the former prisoners."

"Certainly, Captain." Ilchymis ushered his assistants out of the doors, and the three hunched over a little more.

Vyse breathed in and out slowly. "What are your names?" He demanded softly.

"Vize." The young man got out. "And this is Anita. And Faina." Vyse finally looked away from the trio to look over to Fina and then Aika, saying nothing, but raising an eyebrow.

"Why the hell are you trying to dress like us? What the hell were you thinking?" Aika snapped angrily.

Faina, the albino woman meant to be Fina's opposite, laughed once with a bitter noise. "We were thinking it was easy money."

"We were entertainers." Vize explained. "And you three? The Blue Rogues who were captured by the Armada, stole their best ship _and_ the prince and then blasted your way out of the Grand Fortress? The story told itself. We were planning on putting on a stage show, but we realized that people were confusing us for actually being you…"

Anita snorted at that. "There was more money in pretending to _be_ you than talking about you. Some gave us money, others we demanded it from. Most people bought it. We made out okay on the smaller islands, but when we got to Nasrad…"

"Let me guess." Aika cut her doppelganger off. "They saw right through you."

"For anyone who had actually met us, it would be all too easy." Vyse snarled. "You don't wear the right colors. Dead giveaway, even without you screwing up on personality. And you just thought you could show up and demand money, like we…"

"Like you were pirates." Vize finished.

"We aren't pirates!" Aika yelled at them all. "We're Blue Rogues! There's _worlds_ of difference! The moment you threatened them, you betrayed yourselves!"

"Yeah." Vize chuffed, and rubbed at his exposed eye. "Well. We figured Nasrad would be an easy target, it had already been picked over by the Valuans and then the looters. But it wasn't. And then somebody must have told Valua where we were, because the next thing we knew? Nasrad's besieged again and we're being loaded up on that prison ship, on a one-way trip to our executions."

Vyse folded his arms. "You want to know what I'm most pissed about? It's that you didn't _care_ what kind of damage you might do. You know why the Blue Rogues exist? To fight oppression and to _help people_ who need it. I have fought and _bled_ to establish my reputation, and the reputations of everyone who serves under me. While we were off fighting Valua, stopping the empire's expansion, fighting monsters and saving the world, you were pretending to be us. I have no _idea_ what kind of damage control we're going to have to pull because of this stunt of yours, but believe me, we do _not_ have the time to waste on repairing bridges you burned down." Vyse was nearly spitting fire then, and Fina shivered a little. The three emotionally exhausted impersonators flinched under the assault and curled in on themselves even more. "And you know what? If we were really the Black Pirates that you acted like, we'd shove you back on that prison transport and leave you to Valua's mercy, or we'd shove you off the side of the ship and let the abyss take you." Faina made a strangled noise that was almost a whine at that suggestion. "But it's a good thing that we're not like you. We're Blue Rogues. I'm fast becoming the most wanted man in the Valuan Empire. And Aika and Fina would be killed off so fast, or worse." He leaned in towards them. "So tell me, Vize. Do you _really_ want to be me?"

Vize cried without making a sound and shook his head.

Vyse kept staring them all down. "So here's what you're going to do."

* * *

_Nasrad, Nasr_

_227 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The _Delphinus_ sailed into Nasrad, and a large contingent of the crew including the main four, Khazim and his men, Osman, Fatima, Kirala and Ilchymis disembarked. Dragged along with them were the trio of doppelgangers who had caused so much trouble, and they were marched straight into the town square. There, Vize, Anita, and Faina were forced to confess their misdeeds before the gathered crowds massed between the harbor and the ruins of the Nasultan's palace. Afterwards, Vyse told the people of Nasrad to spread the word of the deception, and given how many merchants and sailors from myriad vessels were about along with the speed of gossip, Fina had no doubt that by the time the _Delphinus_ was finished with its refit, the good name of Vyse and the Blue Rogues would be cleared. As for the trio of impersonators, there was a silver lining to be found; They were ordered by the merchant's council, the only standing portion of government in Nasrad, to make restitution by putting their talents to work in lifting the spirits of the still suffering population through their craft.

Serving community service through community theater didn't seem like a terribly harsh punishment, and Fina was optimistic that if Vize and his tag-alongs managed to do well enough, they could make a career out of it. The people of Nasrad had suffered and were still suffering as they tried to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. They would be in need of a good distraction. She thought of her studies of ancient history and smiled, realizing she was seeing a better part of it playing out again. In times of hardship, people flocked to inspirational and uplifting stories that distracted them from their own plight.

Even though her life wasn't a story.

The last stop that the full group made was to the Sailor's Guild to officially report the imposter's true natures, to cash in on the litany of Discoveries they'd made within and on the other side of the Dark Rift...and to collect the 100 'Crew Coins' promised to them for the sale of Daccat's Coin to the guildmaster. The guildmaster had balked at how much more money Vyse pirated out of him for the news and locations of all of their Discoveries, but he hadn't so much as blinked at handing over the finished product. It took Fina a bit to realize why, until she figured out what the man's easy smile meant.

He had known Vyse would return from his voyages.

With the _Delphinus_ crewmembers dispersed to see to their various tasks, Fina and Aika found themselves at liberty. They'd taken Fatima to the _Calm Sands Inn_ to introduce her to the elderly innkeeper who shared her name, and arranged for Fatima of Esperanza to stay there while she arranged passage on a ship bound for Maramba. Fatima of Nasrad was pleased to see them both again, and was warm to the woman that also bore her name.

"I didn't think Fatima was a very common name." Fina said, as they were finishing up their meal of lamb curry and garlic-roasted flatbread. The older woman laughed at that.

"Well, not anymore. But it was a very popular name when I was a girl. I suspect your mother felt it was appropriate." She said to the former Esperanzan barmaid. The younger Fatima smiled thinly and looked away. "Oh, do not fret, girl. A good mother cannot hate her daughter forever. Especially when they come home and ask for forgiveness. Was she a good mother?"

The younger Fatima swallowed. "Yes."

"Then do not worry. She will love you still."

"Just remember you have options, Fatima." Aika reminded her. "This isn't goodbye. Just like Laurette staying in Yafutoma wasn't goodbye either. You're a member of our crew, and a Blue Rogue. And we look out for our own. If things go tits up…"

"I come back to Nasrad, stay here at this inn...and wait for you." Fatima finished. She smiled at Aika and Fina in equal turns. "I may come back even if things go well. Serving with all of you has been a joy."

"You have enough money?" Fina asked her worriedly.

"More than enough." Fatima replied, jingling the pouch hanging from her waist. Then she held up the Crew Coin that Vyse had given to her. "And I have this. Now, I'm sure that you two lovely girls have a dozen other things more exciting to do during the short stay in Nasrad. Go do some shopping. Buy some beautiful dresses. Just because I spent my wages on the missing ingredients for proper Kabal Skewers doesn't mean you have to waste your money on something equally boring."

Aika laughed and got up, leaning over to give both of the Fatimas a hug. "Okay, fair enough. Come on, Fina." Fina got up and bowed to both of them, and then they left.

Out in the streets, Aika stretched her hands up above her head and grinned. "You know something, Fina? I think everything's going to turn out all right."

"I wish I had your optimism." Fina confessed, strolling along beside her. "At the rate we're going, I feel like we're going to have to fight every single Gigas on Arcadia. And I don't know about you, but I could do without the stress."

"Well. No argument there, Princess." Aika bumped the side of her hip against Fina's and grinned. "You said the next Moon Crystal we should chase down was where again?"

"The Lands of Ice." Fina reminded her. "South. Past the bitterly cold sky rifts of the Southern Ocean. You haven't seen cold like we're going to be dealing with down there."

"Huh. And here I was, thinking that was just another wild rumor." Aika grumbled. "That's why you're pushing for all the refits?"

"I would prefer it if all of our water and steam pipes didn't freeze up, yes." Fina hummed. "And you'll want to give Tikatika an insulated dome over the lookout tower so he can use it without freezing to death. And insulation for the ship in general would be a wonderful idea."

"We're in the right place to buy red moonstones in bulk." Aika suggested. "And we'll have Brabham once we get back to Crescent Island, which will give us four outstanding ship's engineers...Who knows? This might actually be fun!"

"We won't finish the refit overnight, though." Fina considered. "Problems for later. I could do with a drink. Didn't Vyse say he was taking Enrique to the tavern we used to work at?"

"We should drop in, see if we can get some free tips for brightening up the atmosphere." Aika grinned, and they picked up speed across the still ruined pavilion. They didn't get inside the building, though, because they heard the sounds of an argument in the small alley behind it. And the voices were familiar. Fina looked to her lover and they snuck closer to listen in.

"I am a Prince in exile!" Enrique shouted, and Aika and Fina lingered by the corner of the alley without turning into it. "She is a princess of the blood, beloved and vested by her homeland! What could I hope to offer her?"

And there was the voice of their man, impatient and fed up with it all. "Do you think she _cares?_ For Moon's sake, Enrique, her _brother_ was worse off than you are! I'll bet you anything that she doesn't care about your status, she just wants _you."_

"Vyse, it's…" Enrique started and sighed. "It's different for royalty. Don't you understand? I love her. All right? _Yes._ I love her. But what can I offer her?"

"What did I have to offer to Aika or Fina but myself?" Vyse countered, and Aika put a hand over her mouth to muffle the gasp. Fina settled for biting her lip and fighting off the stinging in her eyes. "It's enough, 'Rique. It was enough for them. It'll be enough for Moegi. Trust me."

Fina's hand reached out for Aika's and squeezed down on it, and her Valkyrie squeezed back even harder. She met her brown eyes, and understanding passed between them. Because Vyse had been right. Fina had been all alone with no support, no wealth, no allies. Aika was a Blue Rogue, the same as Vyse, her life in peril at any given moment. What did they have but each other? What was more important than that?

"Trust me." Vyse repeated, when Enrique didn't respond.

They heard the prince breathe out slowly. "I do." He finally said. "And it isn't." Then Enrique's boots clicked along the stone and there was the sound of him pushing through the back door of the building, going back inside. Vyse sighed and followed after another ten seconds.

Fina and Aika looked at each other again, and then they walked back out to the storefront, both smiling and putting the encounter in the backs of their minds. For now.

* * *

_Crescent Island_

_229 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

It had been a shock to all of them to find Crescent Island completely transformed when they arrived. For Fina, though, it had been especially jarring. Her first sight of the island had been during their grand retracing, and she had seen the island as it had been when Vyse had been shipwrecked and stranded on it, an impressive looking bowl with an overlook above a small pond and a mighty backdrop of a mountain towering overhead.

But now? Now, there were several buildings erected around the island and what looked like a building set in the side of the mountain with an elevator leading up to it. As the mighty ship did a fly-about so they could take a closer look at it all, a large portion of the back of the island began to lower on massive chains built for ship's anchors, revealing a hidden drydock that had been hollowed out. It was a space many times larger than the secret base that had been hidden beneath Windmill Island and had protected Dyne's faction of the Blue Rogues for so long. It was a space meant for the _Delphinus._

Brabham and Izmael, glowing and grinning like fools, waited for them at the bottom of the ramp as they disembarked, and the old ship engineer let out a rheumatic laugh as he came to attention and saluted. "Welcome home, captain. I see you've come back alive and well from the edge of the world…" The blonde-haired old-timer paused and squinted up at the _Delphinus_ and raised an eyebrow as he took in all the damage. "Whaddid you do, go out and fight the whole Armada?"

"Not the whole Armada. Just the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Fleets." Vyse told him matter-of-factly. As Brabham wheezed incredulously, Vyse blinked a couple of times. "Not all at the same time. Oh. And we killed a Gigas. We took some damage in the process." The way he said it so calmly with a hand set at his waist made Aika crack out laughing while Fina giggled behind her hand.

"How are you not dead?!" Izmael blathered, waving his hammer over his head.

"There, but for the grace of the Moons…" Enrique sighed dramatically. He smiled and shook his head. "It has been a long and _interesting_ voyage. Can the damage be repaired?"

"Oh, sure." Brabham nodded vigorously, and motioned to the mooring posts and the docking cranes erected next to the dock. "I've also got the parts in stock to reinforce the ship's armor a little more, give you the ability to go flying through any stone reef you might encounter."

"Really?" Aika looked around the underground dock suspiciously. "How did you get the supplies to manage that? That's high-grade moonstone augmented steel you're talking about, not even the black market can get its hands on that easily. Did the Nasrian Home Fleet loan you some when they showed up to help out and get some repairs done?"

Brabham looked down to Izmael, and the shorter, fatter of the pair slung his hammer over his shoulder and grinned. "Yeah. It was some kind of hellishly busy here for a while. But they weren't the only ones who showed up and pitched in. Clara and Gilder stopped by, and they left you a base-warming present or two. And there's an emissary from the Nasrian Home Remant Fleet who's been waiting here for about a week now, hoping you'd make it back."

"Bad news?"

"Couldn't say, captain." Izmael shrugged. "But it can wait for a little bit. What's the first order of business?"

"We have supplies to unload, a ship to repair and refit to new specifications, and some much deserved R and R for our crew."

"How many crewmembers were you able to pick up on your voyage to the Dark Rift?" Brabham inquired curiously.

Fina laughed a little. "I think it would be better if we just showed you."

"Right you are, Fina." Vyse stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly, and everyone who'd been gathering on the foredeck came running for the gantry. And then Brabham and Izmael's eyes went wide as they realized just how many people had been brought into the fold as Blue Rogues and allies.

Aika couldn't stop laughing, and Fina saw no reason to stop her.

* * *

_Crescent Island Tavern_

Kalifa had taken one look at the accommodations and promptly set up a tent outside, while Osman, Ilchymis and Ryu-Kan had set up workshop spaces inside the excavated tunnels for a proper forge, 'pharmaceuticals lab' as Fina had corrected her adopted uncle, and a massive pavilion full of supplies, trinkets, fabrics, and rarities from throughout their voyages. In spite of how many crewmembers had been picked up and added to the roster since they had left Sailor's Isle so many months before, there was ample space in the bunkhouses, a happy side-effect of having the Nasrian Remnant Fleet present for the building and needing enough space to house their crews during their own ship's repairs.

Aika had left them to meet with the engineering team after they'd finished their tour of the island and planned out their next expedition to the Lands of Ice. Between refitting the hull, using the books on Polarity that had been gifted to them by the Yafutomans to convert the _Delphinus_ atmospheric condensers to Yafutoman standards (And thus, gain access to the Upper and Lower Skies), and figuring out how to weatherproof and winterize the ship so it would both fly and be comfortable in permanent subzero temperatures, there was more than enough work to keep the engineering teams of the _Delphinus_ busy for a long time. Even if they did have extra help.

And trying to secure that help was exactly why Vyse was sitting in the new tavern with Fina sitting beside him, looking across the table to the Nasrian Remnant Fleet emissary sitting across from them.

"We do of course have engineering teams that might be of service to you in your endeavors, Captain Vyse. But what would you offer in exchange?"

"Breathing room." Vyse told him coolly. "We dealt a heavy blow to the Armada's 2nd Fleet just outside of Esperanza. In the lands of Yafutoma under the Blue Moon, we battled the 3rd and 4th Fleets simultaneously and crippled the _Draco, _the flagship of Admiral Vigoro." Vyse was being smug about it, but Fina supposed that was his good humor reflecting on hard-won battles and coping with them. "If that isn't enough to earn an extra favor from Admiral Komullah, you can inform him that we've also proactively dealt with the impostors that were mucking around Nasrad, and we've been making connections elsewhere in the world. Valua won't be able to turn the full wrath of its attentions on Nasr, not with our allies stirring up trouble in Mid-Ocean and in Ixa'taka. Not with the disastrous failure of their expedition to Yafutoma."

The emissary laughed at that and took another long drink of his ale. "You certainly don't do things by half measures, captain. I will be happy to pass your request on. Couched in the terms of mutual cooperation, Komullah may be happy to help you."

"Glad to hear it." Vyse took a smaller sip of his own ale. "So. Why were you here, then?"

"To pass on a message." The emissary said, digging in his pocket for a small, folded up note and sliding it across the table. Vyse unfolded it, gave it a look, and then handed it over to Fina to examine also. It appeared to be rough coordinates. Coordinates very close to the border between the black skies of the Dark Rift's outer wall, and the high mountainous ridge that made up the spine of Nasr's main continent. "Regarding two matters. Before the war, there were a few expeditionary vessels which had been tasked by the Nasultan with searching out the far reaches of our lands for viable territory for settlement. One such ship went missing and was thought lost with all hands, but a single sailor turned up, rescued from the shoreline by merchants and rattling away in a fever brought on by thirst and starvation. Before he died, he spoke of old ruins, but gave an imprecise fix on their location. Those coordinates are the best guess of our cartographers, but we lack the resources to pursue the lead ourselves, committed as we are in the resistance against Valua. Admiral Komullah has asked me to pass on a request for you to look into the matter. If there is any truth to it, report it to the Sailor's Guild guildmaster in Nasrad and you shall be properly rewarded. It is our understanding that you have remarkable skill in finding unusual Discoveries."

They did, Fina thought, and couldn't help but recall the enormous flying turtle or the island that had sat fully inverted not far from Ryu-Kan's home.

"Well, it seems like a decent enough side project." Vyse nodded, tucking the note away. "What was the second thing?"

"Not a request or an order, but merely an addendum to your announcement of the Discovery of Daccat's hidden island. Some of our ships made landfall there after word of Daccat's Coin turning up spread throughout the Remnant Fleet. They found the underground puzzle tomb as you described it, but a more comprehensive investigation turned up a dilapidated village on the island as well, abandoned and overrun with wild growth. Komullah felt that nobody was more worthy of looking into the matter than Vyse of the Blue Rogues. Who better to look into the legacy of the most famous air pirate of all time than the Blue Rogue who hopes to succeed him?" Vyse went to speak and the emissary raised a finger. "That is not meant as an insult. You are an honorable man, Vyse, and hold our respect."

"Fair enough." Vyse said, a twinkle in his eye. "We might look into that as well."

"Well, good then." The emissary finished off his drink and stood up. "In that case, my business on your fine island is at last concluded. Strong sails and fair skies, Captain Vyse."

"May the Red Moon illuminate your path." Vyse answered, giving the man a typical farewell by Nasrian custom. "And tell Komullah we hope for his continued health and success against Valua."

"I shall do so." The emissary smiled, departing the tavern. Vyse sighed and pushed what was left of his drink away from himself.

"So. It seems we have two places to look at."

Fina reached over and pulled his hat down, tugging it over his eyes. "Come on, Vyse, I know you want to look into the both of them."

"Kind of hard to do that when our ship's being worked on." He pointed out as he fixed his tricorn hat, and Fina raised an eyebrow.

"Vyse, did you forget that Brabham and Izmael have a smaller ship they've been using for supply runs? We'll just take the _Redoubt_ and leave our engineering teams to get to their business without you getting in their way."

"Minus Aika. She's coming with us if I'm going exploring." Vyse said, and Fina smiled easily.

"Of course she's coming with us. Daccat's Isle is closer, we could do that one first and be done quickly enough."

"Good." Vyse smirked. "Our girl's 18th birthday is coming up soon. In a couple of weeks, matter of fact. And I want to celebrate it properly. Just the three of us."

Fina brightened up at the idea, humming. "A romantic getaway?" She mused, scooting a little closer to his side. "That sounds lovely."

"Yeah. I thought it might." Vyse set an arm around her waist and pulled her in closer, and Fina leaned her head against his shoulder. "You were right. We could all do with a little vacation. And the crew could use a break without us getting in their way all the time. We'll use Daccat's Isle as a test voyage, make sure that our Blue Rogues can all take care of themselves while the 'big three' are away. And it'll be a good experience for Enrique as well. He never had to lead or take command back in Valua, his mother and the Admiralty held on to the reins of power too tightly. He needs some experience and the crew needs some time to get more comfortable with him."

Fina thought about that, and a flash of an idea came to her. "I don't know, Vyse, I think he needs to resolve something else first."

Vyse leaned away from her and Fina lifted her head to meet his soft brown eyes. He was assessing her and it didn't take him long to find the answer. "Moegi."

Fina gave a sharp nod of her head. "She's attracted to him. She admires him. I know she loves him, even if she can't say it, but she didn't just walk away from Yafutoma because she wanted to see the world. She wants that, yes, but more importantly, she was _following him."_

"Yeah." Vyse agreed easily. "And Enrique...Moons, if he was any more obvious, I swear that Pinta and Marco would just burst in on them the next time Enrique was trying to make polite conversation with her and shout, _'Just kiss her already!'"_ The idea of it made Fina giggle, and she got out two laughs before she covered her mouth with a hand. Vyse just kept grinning at her. "Oh, and you'll never guess who I caught necking in the stateroom hallway's supply cabinet right after we left Nasrad. When Don was on duty at the helm."

"Who?" Fina asked, her eyes glowing, and then she made a little gasp. "Wait, _no._ You caught _Laurence_ making out with someone in the supply closet?"

Vyse was grinning even wider, and he bobbed his head so fast that she thought it might come off for a moment. "Give up?"

"Oh, you know I'll never get it, I had honestly thought the man just wasn't interested in anyone!"

"Well, he seemed to like clawing marks on Lapen's back well enough." Vyse drawled out softly, so that nobody would overhear them. Fina blinked and her eyes widened before she let out an excited gasp.

"Oh, that's just - they're _perfect_ for each other!"

"Yeah. I guess they are." Vyse chuckled. "I must have embarrassed the hell out of them. I blinked, asked them if it was consensual, and they looked at me like they thought I was going to kick them off the ship then and there before they both nodded. Then I just grabbed some cloth towels, gave them a nod and told them to carry on, and closed the door with them still inside."

"It...it doesn't bother you?" Fina asked hopefully. Vyse chuckled and reached for his drink, downing the last of it.

"Fina, I'm lucky enough to be in love with two women who love each other as much as they love me. If we can share our lives and our bed and our love together, why would I ever argue against two men being together, or two women? Or more?" He shrugged. "The Blue Rogues have always fought for freedom against oppression. This? It's just another layer of it that makes it all a little bit better. Besides, they're good men, and good sailors. They deserve their happiness, as much as anyone else on board our ship."

Fina couldn't help herself at his honest admission, she leaned up against him with a hand on his chest and kissed him soundly. "How did I ever get so lucky that you fell into my life?"

Vyse grinned back at her and left a small peck on the end of her nose. "I hate to say it, Fina, but Aika and myself, we didn't fall into your life. You fell into ours. And we never want to let you go."

"Good." The Silvite said, tearing up from happiness and quickly wiping it away. She needed to change gears or she'd go racing off to kiss Aika stupid in front of everyone because of how Vyse had left her heart a melted puddle again. "So, anyways. Enrique and Moegi."

"Yeah." Vyse exhaled, following her shift in the conversation and letting go of her to go refill his mug of ale. When he rejoined the table, he was sitting at a more respectable distance from her. "I was hoping you might have some ideas about how to fix them." Fina looked up and scanned the tavern, seeing only Merida working busily with Kirala on building a small stage for her dancing, and Polly and Robinson doing their best to seem occupied with each other. A little too occupied, given how Polly was looking away and biting the inside of her cheek to mask a smile that she couldn't quite hide all the way. Well, the cook had seen them kiss, then. No matter.

"Don't you have a plan?" Fina inquired.

"Well, yes, but my plans tend to make things explode." Vyse replied diplomatically. "In this instance, Fina, I think we'd be better served to be guided by your wisdom and insight. You're the expert in building and sustaining relationships between the three of us."

"Flatterer."

"Not flattery if it's true." Vyse winked, and Fina felt her face burn from the blush.

"In that case." She said, and cleared her throat. "Enrique and Moegi are both royalty. Their upbringing, how they've been raised to interact with people gets in the way of honest conversations. If we want them to open up and be honest with each other, we need to get them away from everyone - the sailors Enrique feels he must be proper in front of, Moegi's minders - and get them alone. Or, alone with people that they're comfortable around. Like the three of us."

Vyse caught on quickly. "You want to bring them with us when we go to Daccat's Isle."

Fina nodded, pleased. "Princess Moegi has always had an interest in the air pirate Daccat. Just couch this trip as a way to help her search for the truth behind the accounts she grew up reading and she'll jump on it."

"And Enrique?"

"Order him to come along." Fina shrugged, and Vyse hummed and raised his mug up to his lips, starting to take another drink. Fina blinked once and grinned, finding that she couldn't help herself. "With any luck, he'll jump on her."

Vyse choked and spat his drink over the table in a frothy mist.

* * *

_Daccat's Isle_

_231 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Mid-Afternoon_

The _Redoubt_ was a fine ship for a former Valuan courier frigate, small enough that it could be sailed easily by one person and maintained by three or four. With Enrique and Moegi on hand to share in the work of preparing hot tea and meals and taking turns at the helm, the journey from Crescent Island into the countless islands in the Frontier Lands turned out to be a very pleasant one. Vyse hadn't been lying about how they all needed a break, the boundless energy that Aika had been keeping on display plummeted four hours after they'd left. Of course, she'd worked herself right up to their departure alongside Brabham and Lapen and Hans, building a plan for the modifications that would make the _Delphinus_ capable of reaching new heights and depths, and surviving the bitter cold. And Fina hadn't realized just how much she'd been relying on her precious supply of Ixa'takan coffee beans to keep going. Vyse had shoved her towards their cabin, and she'd settled in beside Aika for a catnap that had lasted three hours.

But now they were finally back on Daccat's Isle, following the lead that Admiral Komullah had been thoughtful enough to leave for them. It was no wonder that they'd missed the settlement during their first search of the island, the trees and the overgrowth had completely swallowed the ruins and hid them from view. Unlike the distinct landing spots that had been meticulously planned out for the twin doorways to his tomb marked with pictures of a Salamander and a Scorpion in honor of his two ships, there were marks of recent and hasty clear-cutting for a landing field not large enough for the _Redoubt_ itself, but big enough for a pair of landing craft to settle on side by side. Obviously the work of the Nasrian sailors who'd not felt like stomping back all the way through the woods again.

It was quiet as they strolled through the run-down village, aside from the chirping of wild birds and the rustling of the leaves as a soft breeze came through. The ruins had been set next to a respectably sized pond full of freshwater that gleamed a clear blue in the sunlight filtering through the tree canopy. Fina could see where this would have been a wonderful hidden village in its prime, but time and decay had taken their toll on it all. Wooden walls were rotted away, foundations were overrun with vines, and often only a chimney or a severely rusted and pitted cookstove remained to show where houses once stood. Most telling of all was a slightly larger structure with two relatively intact walls that showed signs of recent excavation, and a pile of aged and empty (And sometimes broken) glass bottles next to the remains of a burned down campfire.

Vyse nudged the pile of aged glass and sighed in frustration. "Nasrian Rum, probably. At least we know why the Rum is all gone; Komullah's scouting party must have had themselves quite the little shindig."

"With any luck, the Rum was improperly stored and they got sick off of it." Aika grumbled. "Because if it was still intact and they decided to get blind stinking drunk on the lot of it, they just blew through a good ten or fifteen thousand gold coins worth of vintage alcohol."

"Whether they did or not, they're gone now." Enrique said consideringly. "I don't think that there's anything particularly threatening about, captain. I'm still hearing creatures in the forest."

"So, you remembered that lesson." Vyse smiled at Enrique. "Good. Go ahead and spread out, everyone. Remember, we're looking for traces of evidence that will help us to identify this as a village that Daccat might have lived in. Paperwork would be terrific if any survived, but keep your eyes open for artifacts. Swords, knives, tools, that sort of thing."

Fina went wandering off in one direction while keeping everyone else in sight, and she was heartened when Enrique and Moegi turned north and wandered side by side. The two had been quiet the entire trip out from Crescent Island, even if they couldn't help themselves from sneaking glances at each other. Especially since Moegi had foregone her thicker, more voluminous white robes and arm muffs for a thinner and elegant white and blue kimono better adapted for the heat. If Moegi hadn't spared Enrique a glance every so often, Fina thought that he would have never taken his eyes off of her.

Aika sidled up to her two minutes later. "They're not taking the bait yet."

"Royalty." Fina sighed. "They spent so much time being told how to live and act that they forgot how to reach for what they wanted. What was important."

"No kidding." Aika grumbled, kneeling down beside a pile of debris covered in loose leaves. Her stiff braided pigtails quivered a little up and out from her head as she moved them around, looking for things beneath them. "I swear, I've wanted to just take them both and…" She lifted her hands up and smashed them together several times while making crashing noises, "...for _days_ now."

Fina smiled at the mental image. "I hope it doesn't come to that. I had hoped that some time away from everyone and everything would help them."

Aika sighed and pushed the leaves aside, finally coming up with a few shards of curved glass that seemed to form a glass. "Most people are terrible at knowing what they want, or having the courage to grab for it. Except for you."

_You were braver than I was, though,_ Fina thought to herself as she remembered the night Aika came back into the guest house of King Ixa'taka, hurting and crying from being rebuked by Vyse after offering herself to him. _You're always so brave._

"Hey, guys!" The voice of Vyse interrupted the moment, and Fina spun her head towards it. "I think I found something over here!" He wasn't immediately visible at a distance through the foliage, but they found him easily enough, joining back up with Enrique and Moegi. Vyse was standing in front of an unusual array of three square stone slabs that were drowning in decaying leaves and sticks underneath three trees. "This is different. They wouldn't have put a building all the way over here." Which was true, it was a good twenty yards away from the rest of the village, and the path to it had been laid down with rough stones which the grass had cracked and grown over.

Fina knelt down in front of the left stone slab and frowned. "A memorial, perhaps?" She reached a hand out in front of her and focused, then blinked and looked to the others. "There's magic here. I recognize the spell's form, it's some kind of a preservation spell. Probably to prevent weathering. It's very weak, though; They're long-lived, but they still require refreshing every hundred years or so."

"Meaning whoever put these stones here wanted to be sure it stayed intact." Aika realized, and knelt down beside Fina at the left stone. Vyse and Enrique went to the one in the middle, and Moegi went to stand by the stone on the right. "But since nobody's been here for so long that it's all been forgotten about, it was dying off. Can you refresh them, Fina?"

"Well, yes. And so can you."

"I don't know that spell!"

"I can show you." Fina smiled to her lover. "If you're willing to learn. But first, why don't we see what kind of a memorial these people thought was important enough to burn some potent enchantments on?" She summoned out Cupil and turned him into a wedge that she used to scrape away the detritus from the stone, but Vyse just used his off-hand cutlass instead to scrape away at the center stone. And he finished before she did, with Cupil slipping back around her wrist in his resting bracelet state right after.

"It's not a memorial." Vyse got out in a choked voice. "They're gravestones." Fina was still scraping away, but she looked over before she finished and saw Vyse kneeling down in front of it while Enrique stood behind him, one hand set on her Blue Rogue's shoulder to steady him. Vyse looked punch drunk as his sword fell away from him, and when Fina looked to the surface of his stone, she understood why.

The top of it was emblazoned with a familiar emblem of a skull wearing a tricorn hat, and two swords crossed underneath it. Daccat's symbol. And beneath that emblem was his name, the year of his birth and his death, and a message.

It was _Daccat's grave._

_**I was born a slave, but I died a free man.**_

_** I started with nothing and fought for everything.**_

_** I lived free, and I loved without limit, and I was the richer for it.**_

_** The greatest wealth is not found in coin**_

_** But in the friends you gain, the lives you improve and the love you share.**_

_** My hat bears the mark of your strings, the red and the blue around my heart**_

_** My Salamander. My Scorpion. My Heart is Yours. I will love you always.**_

_** -Sahira Daccat**_

"Moons." Aika breathed, jarring Fina from staring at Daccat's gravestone. "Fina, look! _Look!"_

The Silvite turned her gaze back to the headstone she had been scraping clean, and let out a squeak as the emblem of a Salamander stared back at her. And underneath, an unfamiliar name, two more dates that showed she had died two years before Daccat, and another message in old Mid-Ocean script.

_**No man ever Owned me, but one man loved me.**_

_** Always fight for what is most precious**_

_** Always remember to dance and celebrate what you have with the people you love.**_

_** My flames tempered your blade and broke her chains**_

_** She taught you how to sting, she taught me how to open my heart**_

_** May our children always carry my fire, your courage, and her kindness.**_

_** May Arcadia remember those virtues even if we die forgotten.**_

_** -Yasmina Daccat**_

"Yasmina?" Aika whispered, her finger tracing the name. "Yasmina _Daccat?_ I thought...The _Salamander_ wasn't a ship?!"

"Oh, it was a ship." Enrique told her solemnly. "There are primary accounts in the records that had the _Salamander_ and the _Scorpion_ both mentioned and witnessed. But…"

"His wife." Vyse finished, standing back up and fingering his hat. "He named the ship for his _wife._ Made her the captain of it." He lifted his head up suddenly. "The _Scorpion._ Moegi, your headstone, what does…"

They all turned to the princess of Yafutoma who had gone alone to examine the gravestone on the right, and found her falling to her knees with tears pouring from her eyes. Fina cried out her name and ran to her, but Moegi just kept staring at the stone that she'd scraped clean with her bare hands and stained fingernails and didn't answer her. Fina's heart lurched when she looked at the enchanted marker and realized that she couldn't read it.

For all that she could speak the language relatively well, written Yafutoman was an entirely different matter. And that was all that was written beneath the emblem of a scorpion and a date of death - five years after Daccat's, seven after Yasmina's.

Enrique knelt down beside her, calling her name softly, and she turned and buried her face in his chest, weeping freely. "Moegi?" The Prince said uncertainly, and stroked a hand over her back. "What does it say? Whose stone is it?"

Slowly, Moegi composed herself and pulled away, looking back at it.

**"I had everything but my freedom, until a man arrived in our kingdom."** The dark-haired royal spoke, with the weight of a translated message. **"He offered me the world, at the price of my empty but comfortable life. And I never regretted going with them. I loved a man and a woman more than I had ever dreamed, bore him children as she did, and loved them all as my own. I sailed as a captain, free and unbound. I leave this message to any from Yafutoma who might one day discover the truth. I found my happiness. Don't sacrifice yours for obligation. Ki...Kikue **_**Daccat."**_ She finished, choking up all over again, and clung to Enrique even harder.

"Holy shit." Vyse breathed out. "Holy…"

"Fucking Moons." Aika added hoarsely, looking over all three headstones again. "She married him after all."

Fina's throat was closed up tight as her eyes burned. Even if she could think of anything to say, it was beyond her ability to say.

"Do you love me?" Moegi demanded in a thick voice, when she could speak again. Enrique's arms tightened around her.

"Yes." He said instantly and without hesitation.

"Then why don't you _love_ me?" Moegi cried, finding the courage in Kikue's last message to push beyond her societal proprieties and push for what she wanted. It was finally enough. The last shred of resistance in Enrique crumbled, and he kissed her mouth softly, but fully, with her melting into his arms.

"You deserve so much more than I can give you." He got out, when they separated to breathe. "I'm...I'm not…"

"I just want _you."_ She cut him off with a sob, and Enrique broke into an easy smile and kissed her again. Fina recovered and grabbed at the hands of Vyse and Aika, pulling them away so Moegi and Enrique could have a moment to themselves.

Back next to the edge of the pond in the village that had finally been confirmed as Daccat's home, Fina looked to her lovers who were both still wrapping their heads around it all. Vyse took off his hat and fingered its edge as he stared off into empty space. He ended up sitting down on the ground, looking over the water.

"So. Daccat was more than a pirate. He had a life. He had a home. He had wives and children." Vyse said, the first to put himself back together.

_"Wives."_ Aika repeated dumbly, collapsing next to him. "Who loved each other as much as they loved him."

Vyse broke out into an incredulous laugh. "We're going to rewrite the history books. It's sad, though. Here I was, thinking what we had was special."

"It is!" Fina snapped at him and kneeled at his other side in the Yafutoman style, not wanting him to suddenly harbor any doubts over their relationship. "It still is, even if Daccat loved like we do. It gives me hope, even! If they could love like we do...then others can, too." She nodded her head, seeing the possibilities in it. Daccat was a figure of legend, revered in Nasrian culture and through Mid-Ocean to one degree or another, especially with the rise of the Empire and the resurgence of the Blue Rogues. "And it's not wrong, no matter what other people think. It's just very rare. When people find out about Daccat's life? It's going to establish precedent, Vyse. It will give us legitimacy."

"Yeah." Vyse agreed, and looked down at his hat. "Rupee...he gave this to me. He said that it was passed down in his family." He let out another disbelieving laugh. "And it's powerful. What if...Oh, you're going to think I'm crazy." He uttered, holding it up for Aika and Fina to look at.

Aika stared at it. Fina just smiled. No, Vyse wasn't crazy. She'd studied the enchantments on that hat, how it carried a whisper of power from every person who had ever worn it for decades.

Centuries, even. Going all the way back...back to Daccat.

"Red for his Salamander. Blue for his Scorpion." Aika said in a reverent whisper, picking out the significance of the ribbons laced through the hat's corners at last. "You've been wearing Daccat's hat all this time."

Vyse nodded, still fingering it. "The next time we're in Maramba or Nasrad, remind me to go looking for silver ribbon."

"What?" Fina blinked. "Why?"

Vyse pointed to a corner where the red and blue ribbons laced through it were visible. "It's my hat now, not Daccat's. And it's incomplete. Blue for me. Red for Aika...And Silver for my Princess." He finished, looking up to her with a soft and watery smile.

There was nobody around who would judge her for her impulses then, and Fina's soaring heart couldn't take any more after already being slammed with the discovery of Daccat's true legacy. She sobbed once and leapt into his arms, peppering his mouth and his cheeks with kisses as he lifted her into his lap. Fina swept her legs around him and felt the thrill of his hands cupping her backside to hold her steady.

"I love you." She got out, kissing him again as she craned her head down to his beautiful mouth. "I love you so much." She broke down crying after that, and then Aika was behind her, pressing the Silvite between her two lovers as her Princess kissed the back of her neck and stroked her arms.

"And we love _you,_ babe." Aika whispered into her ear, with Vyse's smiling face taking up all of her attention.

Fina didn't believe that her life was a story. If her life was a story, Fina thought muzzily as Vyse and Aika laid her down in the grass and joined her, it could never be so precious as it was now. Because all stories had an ending.

Fina didn't ever want this to end.


	39. Warm Hearts And Cold Lands

_**BETWEEN THREE ROGUES**_

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson

* * *

**Thirty-Nine: Warm Hearts and Cold Lands**

_Crescent Island_

_260 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

After their discovery on Daccat's Isle, Vyse and his two lovers had taken Enrique and Moegi back to their stronghold and given them instructions to manage the island and keep the crew occupied and safeguarded while the engineering team and their helpers put the ship through its major refit and Izmael and Kirala built up the island further. They'd left the _Delphinus_ and their crew and their friends and Crescent Island behind them and set sail for a brief stopover and resupply in Nasrad before continuing on to investigate some old ruins in Nasrian airspace that bordered The Dark Rift. More important to Vyse, however, was the chance to properly celebrate Aika's 18th birthday.

Vyse had her beaten out by two months, and Fina had reached that age another two months before he had. They had found and mapped the ancient Ruins of Rolana and used the excursion as a chance to celebrate Aika's continued life in a particularly noisy fashion which had left them all sated. It was a vacation that they'd needed desperately, but even Fina had eventually gotten restless enough to acknowledge that they'd put off their responsibilities long enough. Or perhaps it was because they'd run out of coffee and the only place she could get more was back at base, since the _Kafa_ beans were still a commodity that the world at large was unaware of.

There were more than a few of their Blue Rogues milling about on the upper portion of Crescent Island when the _Redoubt_ pulled up to dock off of the nose of their home. Cheers rose up as Aika brought out the gangplank and locked it along the ship's rail, dropping the other end down onto the grass that grew beside the flagpole. Vyse saw a flicker of movement up near the peak of the island, where the grand meeting room and the cartographer's quarters were located, and he adjusted his goggle to zoom in on two figures who were stepping onto the lift platform that connected the decking of the upper rooms to the rest of the island. It looked like Enrique and Domingo, which wasn't terribly surprising given that the explorer they'd picked up at Gordo's Bistro had taken to the balcony and the map inside the main meeting hall like a skyfish to the open air. He had been furiously working on crafting a more accurate map of the world as the Blue Rogues now knew it when they had left.

Chances were that he might have it finished now, and if he did, it was only a matter of time before Domingo and Osman would be seeking to sell off copies of it to interested reputable merchants. Vyse made a mental note to make sure that no Blue Rogue got charged an arm and a leg for a copy. He needed Centime, Clara, and his father to have the most up to date information available if they were going to keep up the fight.

"Welcome back, Captain Vyse!" Came the cheerful cry from the ground. Vyse changed the resolution on his goggle back to normal and looked down to take in the sight of Don and little Marco ambling up towards their ramp and the flagpole. Marco was looking even stronger and healthier than before, and Don seemed...remarkably sober.

"Glad to be back." Vyse answered the old sailor genially. "Permission to disembark,

Crewman Marco?"

"Um...granted?" The boy squeaked, offering a hasty salute. It made Vyse laugh a bit as he walked down the ramp and his gaze slid over to Don, who was smiling smugly.

"Have you been giving my first crewmember some lessons, Mr. Artours?" He asked, and Don cracked a little laugh and shrugged.

"He's got some spunk to him, cap'n, and he picks up stuff easily enough. And while it's all well and good to let him and Pinta and Pow pal around…" Don went on leadingly. Vyse had to laugh as he looked back at Marco, who was scowling as he crossed his arms.

"It's good to stay busy." Vyse told Marco, just holding back from ruffling his hair. The sound of softer footsteps than his own on the ramp coming off of the _Redoubt_ had him turning and smiling as Fina, demure and perfectly proper and wearing a half-smile, came down the ramp hauling a travel bag in each arm. Aika was waiting at the top of the boarding ramp behind her, glowing incandescently in opposition to Fina's more quiet radiance. "But it's good to take some time to relax from time to time also."

"I'll say." Aika drawled, coming down the board once Fina had stepped off of it and onto solid ground. "Don, you mind flying the _Redoubt_ back around to the interior dock? We've been in the air for a while and Fina and I need to freshen up and get something to eat."

"No problem." Don nodded, whistling lowly to Marco. "Come on, little sailor. Time you got some experience behind the wheel."

"What? Really? You mean it?!" Marco exclaimed excitedly. "Spectacular!" He gushed, and Vyse heard Fina giggle into her hand as the young boy used one of the new words he'd picked up from the older crewmembers. "You hear that, Vyse? I'm gonna get to pilot a ship!"

"It's a perfectly good time to learn, Marco." Vyse said to the boy, thinking back to the first time his father had let him take the helm of the little schooner they'd used for fishing and lighter expeditions. "Don knows more about flying ships than most. You pay attention, you do what he says, and you remember that when you're behind the wheel of a ship, it's not just your life in your hands. It's the lives of every other soul aboard her." He knelt down to look Marco in the eye, and the red-haired boy swallowed and blinked wildly. Vyse reached a hand out and touched his shoulder, and his smile came back. "You're going to be one hell of a sailor, Marco, and you're already a good Blue Rogue. You have no _idea_ how proud I am of you."

Marco kept blinking and didn't say anything in reply, but Vyse saw how his eyes got watery at that. The boy ducked his head, sniffed, and wiped a sleeve across his face to hide the evidence.

"Sure. Okay." Marco got out thickly, and coughed. "Um. You're a good captain, Vyse." Still not looking to Vyse or Aika and Fina, he jerked his head up to Don and harrumphed. "Come on, old man! I wanna learn how to fly, so let's get started!" And he dashed up the gangplank and onto the ship.

Don sighed and nodded to Vyse as the Blue Rogue stood back up. "You spoil that boy, you know?"

"I know the kind of life he had before he met me." Vyse answered, adjusting the legendary tricorn hat of Daccat that he'd inherited and made his own. The feel of the silver ribbon that was now laced through the brim alongside the red and the blue made his smile more warm than the sad thing his memories of Lower Valua evoked. "I think we can spoil him a little bit."

"As you say." Don offered a halfhearted salute and sauntered up the gangplank, and Vyse turned as he heard Aika and Fina cheerfully exclaim Princess Moegi's name. The Yafutoman royal was coming up from the pond adjacent to the main bunkhouse and the smile on her face was more open and informal than he'd expected. Aika and Fina soon pulled the black-haired woman into a three-way hug that ended with Aika and Moegi laughing.

"You look so refreshed." Moegi praised Vyse's lovers, sparing him a quick glance before slipping her arms out of her voluminous sleeves to lead them away. "Come, we should get you unpacked and I will make us some tea, and you can tell me _everything…"_

The three women walked away in their own little world and Vyse could only shake his head and smile. There was something to be said for sisterhoods, and to be sure, Aika and Fina had forged one with Moegi through their shared experiences.

"Captain Vyse?" The voice of Enrique pulled him away from his woolgathering, and Vyse gave a nod to the exiled prince who had finally crossed the island to greet him. They clasped hands and Enrique smiled. "Well, what do you think?" He asked Vyse, making a sweeping gesture with his arm to all the buildings which had seen renovations. There was now a _fountain_ in the middle of the courtyard with a relief of Cupil spouting water, the tavern now sported a distinctly Yafutoman roof and siding, and he could see actual fish in the pond below him, along with a selection of young plants of varied origin.

"You made some changes." Vyse declared. "Fish?" He asked, gesturing to the pond.

Enrique sighed. "It can come out of my wages if you want. But Moegi was getting homesick. This gives her a piece of it to hold onto."

Vyse looked at the pond again and thought of those brilliant orange fish that swam in the waters around the royal palace, hiding beneath massive waterlily pads. He thought of Laurette, a member of his crew who'd joined from Esperanza and stayed when they reached the lands on the other side of The Dark Rift that separated them, and how she and Moegi were now two women living entirely apart from the rest of their life and experiences. At least Moegi had other Yafutoman women around. There was Kirala the carpenter and her sister Urala the cook, and her ladies in waiting. Vyse wondered if Laurette had anything to remind her of home, and the family she was apart from. He hoped she did, and he made a note to plan a return trip to Yafutoma, if circumstances allowed it.

"No, it's fine." Vyse reassured Enrique. The prince gave a relieved nod. "Thanks for not burning the place down while I was gone. Did anyone give you any trouble?"

"We are Blue Rogues, captain. We are all trouble." Enrique told him dryly. "But not to each other."

"Good."

Enrique clasped a hand on his shoulder as the _Redoubt_ puttered away from the front of the island, and his gaze fell to the flagpole and the flag sailing proudly atop it. "Welcome home, Vyse."

Vyse looked up at the flag as well, a proud and gleaming thing that bore the emblem that fused all the best parts of himself, the two women he loved, and his best friend. The skull and crossbones on a gold coin surrounded by a pair of dolphins with a cutlass and a rapier lined up behind them, and the words **Blue Rogues Fly Free** curved beneath it all. Crescent Island had come a long way from the wilderness it had been when he'd been marooned.

With his loves and his friends and his crew all here, Crescent Island really did feel like home.

* * *

_Crescent Island Tavern_

Over a bowl of rice with chicken and stir-fried vegetables cooked in the Yafutoman style (But with the addition of Nasrian hot peppers and spices), Vyse swallowed and quickly reached for the glass of cold smallbeer waiting for him. "Mouth-watering." He said after two swallows while his eyes burned a little. Urala smiled, clasping her serving tray to her stomach, and bowed.

"Pleased to serve. Captain." She said, and turned to go back to the kitchen. Vyse watched her go, noted the absence of Polly and Robinson, then used his fork to spear up another bite.

"So, how's things been in the kitchen with Polly and Urala? The tavern didn't look Yafutoman when I left." He popped the forkful into his mouth and chewed, noting that once his mouth stopped burning from the first hit and went a little numb, he could pick out a few subtler flavors underneath.

"Hm. They take shifts." Enrique hummed, examining his mug of cider. "It's not like when Fatima was here. She and Polly could manage together well enough. But now that Laurette's in Yafutoma as Prince Daigo's Foreign Minister and Fatima's gone for Maramba to patch things up with her mother…"

"Is Fatima not back yet?"

"She might not come back, Vyse." Enrique reminded him with sad eyes. Vyse paused and set his fork down.

"She will. Because she has a little sister to see again." Enrique shrugged, and Vyse resumed his meal. "All right. Next topic. The ship?"

"Let's just say I'm glad that we still have an alliance with Admiral Komullah and his men." Enrique hummed, throwing back another hit of cider. "Lapen, Hans and Brabham put the Nasrian engineers and a fair chunk of our own to work on refitting and replacing the armor plating. We took quite a beating when we fought off Bluheim, and keeping the moonstone latticework beneath the outer surface intact took some diligent effort. Still, easy enough work for skilled shipwrights. The upside is the hull's armor should be strong enough to take on any stone reef we've ever come across now. The more challenging work, our engineers kept to themselves."

"The engines." Vyse muttered. "Or rather, the modifications to the atmospheric condensers." He tapped his free hand against the table. "Which I imagine is where Aika's headed as soon as she feels halfway civilized and perky again."

"Hm. Time spent in the company of Moegi should accomplish that." Enrique mused, and the two shared a knowing smile. "As for the engine, I'm sure that those three will welcome having Miss Aika to smooth out their rough corners. Although I'm tempted to ask if Miss Fina might join them."

"Enrique, I think we're past formalities." Vyse pointed out. "You can just use their given names." The exiled prince seemed ready to keep arguing the point, but Vyse held up a hand. "You're our friend. Friends get to use our names. And if that's not enough, I can make it an order."

"No order needed, captain." Enrique surrendered. "I'll try and remember. And I'm certain you will correct me if I forget."

"Good." Vyse changed gears. "That covers the ship for the most part, and I'll be giving her a stem to stern inspection here in a bit anyways. How about the crew and the island? I've seen a few improvements. Any concerns needing addressed?"

"That swordmaker we picked up, Ryu-Kan? He finished setting up his forge inside the mountain. Built himself a little nook opposite and well clear of Dr. Ilchymis' laboratory equipment. He said he wanted to see you and Aika."

"Any clue why?"

Enrique reached to his waist and gripped the pommel of his rapier. Vyse noticed right then that it was a touch different, lacking the gold filigree and embellishments of the blade that Enrique had been using since his defection. The crossguard emphasized function over form, and there was a blue moonstone focus set on one side of it with his old yellow moonstone focus embedded into the other. If his previous rapier had been a weapon befitting a prince, this one was meant for war. And when Enrique pulled it out, there was a shimmer to the blade that made it gleam prismatically in the light through the tavern window. Enrique smirked and waited, and Vyse laughed.

"He figured out how to forge with Bluheim's scales." The Blue Rogue said, and Enrique slid his sword back into the scabbard. "Oh, I _want_ one."

"Good." Enrique grinned. "Because he has _two_ cutlasses waiting for you. And a new boomerang for Aika. I'll leave it to you to figure out the details, but he did say he was rather tired. He's never worked in a forge that burned as hot as his new one does, and he worked himself to exhaustion figuring out how to turn Bluheim's body parts into a brand new moonsteel alloy."

"I'll bother him tomorrow morning after he's had his breakfast and green tea then." Vyse resolved. "Anything else?"

"Ilchymis wants to order some new equipment and expand his pharmacy with a permanent garden, Osman wants to set up a proper warehouse further back in the mountain, and Kalifa asked if we might set her up with a better tent." Enrique took another swig of his drink. "I felt like authorizing it all, but I thought you might want to sign off on it yourself."

"Do we have the money in the coffers for it all?" Vyse asked flatly.

"According to Osman...yes. Although she bemoaned that it would cut into our next trading expedition. She's keen on taking another load of Nasrian wares to Yafutoma should the opportunity arise, especially since the engine refit promises to make it possible for us to cross the Dark Rift by sailing clean over it."

"Good." Vyse nodded. "And I wouldn't have said a word against you approving it all, in case you were wondering. The better facilities our people have, the better off we'll be."

"I just wanted to be sure you'd have a proper base to come back to. It hasn't been all smooth sailing though. The three girls from Captain Clara's ship, the _Primrose,_ have been getting into some low-grade shouting matches with Khazim and his men."

"Really?" Vyse took another bite of his food and found that he was quickly approaching the end of his tolerance for the spicy meal. He could feel the sweat building up under his blue longcoat. "What were their names again…Belle and…"

"Lilly and Nara." Enrique finished for him. "All of them are 16. I would say that they were a bit young to be joining up, but…" He waved a hand at Vyse to finish the sentence. "You were _ten,_ you said. When you started."

"Ten and working as a non-combatant cabin boy." Vyse said. "At 16, Aika and I were blooded and experienced. So what are our gunnery crews fighting about?"

"It seems to change daily." Enrique sighed. "Yesterday they were fighting over who had better aim."

"How did they settle it? Moonstone pistols and a row of empty tin cans?"

"No. I would have preferred that." Enrique grumbled. "Instead, they spent the day building scale model catapults and took turns lobbing coconuts at some open-sided tents they set up for the purpose. The crew got involved and there was betting, and then it all got out of hand."

Vyse couldn't help the laugh that spilled out of him. "Blue Rogues." He shook his head after. "We never do things the easy way."

"That's not part of the Code, Vyse."

"No." Vyse said, raising his tankard up in salute. "It doesn't make it any less true, 'Rique."

The prince thought, considered, and raised his own mug of cider, tapping it to Vyse's.

* * *

_Evening_

For lack of anywhere better to meet privately, Vyse, Aika and Fina congregated in Crescent Island's meeting and cartography room after a day spent getting their bearings and determining what still needed to be done. Fina had bounced her time between Moegi, Ilchymis, and the other women on their crew, Aika had charged right into the inner workings of the _Delphinus_ and its new modifications, and Vyse…

Aika stared down at her new boomerang that he'd put on the table for her with wide eyes. "Unbelievable." She said, tracing the gleaming, prismatic edge. "He actually did it."

"Gigas weapons." Vyse nodded, getting used to the added weight of his own new swords. "The edge on that is sharp enough that you'll probably want to think about getting a better glove. It wouldn't do to try and catch that on the return and have it slice through your hand." He looked over to Fina, who was examining the foot and a half-long dirk that Ryu-Kan had made in his prototyping stages. "And yes, Fina. You should get used to carrying that. Cupil is remarkably versatile, but even he can't be two things at once. You're more prone to turning him into a shield than a weapon, based on our past battles."

Fina picked up the sheathed long dagger. She drew it out just enough to catch the familiar rainbow sheen of what was once the prismatic fringe of Bluheim's wings speckled through the blade, part of a new moonsteel alloy whose recipe was known only by Ryu-Kan. She bit her lip.

"I'm still not comfortable taking a life, you know." She told him, sliding it back into the scabbard. "When the Elders sent me to gather the Moon Crystals, I knew that it would likely happen, but…"

"It's different, when there isn't a ship between you and your enemies." Vyse finished for her, sensing her hesitation. "When you have to look them in the eyes as the life drains out of them." Fina laughed at his consolation, and he leaned away from her. It didn't sound like Aika's usual throaty laughs, or the softer giggles Fina preferred. Vyse looked over and took note of the concerned look on Fina's face.

"Oh, Vyse." The Silvite said, once she composed herself enough to shake her head. "I don't even have to look at them to feel them die."

Aika blinked wildly at that. "Oh. _Oh,_ it's because of your silver magic…"

"Life. And death." Fina nodded quietly, looking down at the table. "Ramirez was exceptional at the harmful aspect of silver magic. I preferred to focus on healing and restoration, but the _ability_ is there. You can't study how to preserve life without knowing how death works. And I'm so much stronger now than I was when you first found me. I don't need a dagger to kill our enemies. A spell and a wave of my hand, and I could manage it effortlessly. I could burn them alive, or blast them with wind and water, or hit them with enough electricity to stop their heart. I could pulverize them with chunks of ice and make frozen statues out of them. Through it all, if I'm not careful, if I don't limit my awareness, I can _feel_ them. I can feel the pulse of their heartbeats, the warmth of their lives, like I can when I'm on our ship and charging the Moonstone Cannon and I feel the glow of every soul aboard resonating in unified purpose."

"You're not a monster." Aika insisted, setting her boomerang down and hugging the Silvite tightly. "You're my Princess, and you've never been anything less than a good woman who tries to take care of everyone around you."

"I know." Fina closed her eyes, breathed in and out, and then opened them to meet Vyse's waiting stare. "I could turn into a nightmare if I didn't hold myself back."

"You won't." Vyse promised her, and reached across the table to squeeze her hand. "All of us could be monsters if things were different. If we didn't live by our Code, if we didn't have a sense of morality and fairness to guide us. Valua's been poisoned by its rhetoric and by the propaganda that the Empress and Galcian have been pushing for years. You aren't Ramirez."

"He changed." Fina whispered, sinking into Aika's arms. "You heard what Doc told us. Early on, he acted like the Ramirez I remember. What if I change too?"

"You have changed." Aika told her, squeezing her tighter and kissing her cheek. "You're _stronger_ than you were then. And you've never, _never_ lost what mattered most." The redhead brought her hand up and laid it over the cutout in Fina's dress, just above her breasts. "Your heart is strong as it ever was. Okay, babe?" Fina nodded slowly, laying her own hand over Aika's and keeping it pressed to her bare skin.

"It's good to respect life." Vyse added after. "But respect your own first. I would rather you _had_ this dagger and never used it than to not have it and find yourself needing it. Okay?"

"Okay." Fina whispered, and yawned after she sniffed once. "Where are we sleeping?"

"In our own rooms, I suppose." Vyse said. "As they were nice enough to give us and Enrique our own private quarters on the second level of the main bunkhouse." The problem with that was that he doubted his girls would sleep well, or at all, if they slept alone. "Why don't you two pick one of your rooms to sleep in tonight?"

"What about you?" Aika asked him, concerned. "Where will you sleep?"

"In my room." He shrugged. "The beds they put in aren't big enough to fit all three of us the way we're used to. We could squeeze, but…I think you two have been wanting a night to yourselves for a while. Haven't you?"

They had, but there was still a shred of guilt as Aika and Fina looked at each other. Fina turned back to him after a moment.

"We love you. You know that." The Silvite said to him. "Just because we want a night alone with each other, it doesn't mean we don't love you any less."

Vyse smiled. "Yeah, I know. You taught me that lesson already. I haven't forgotten it." He got up and went over to them, giving each of his girls a tender kiss. "Have some proper cuddling tonight. I'll talk with Izmael about building a bigger bed for my room in the morning. That way, we can all sleep together next time without having to sneak back aboard the _Delphinus."_

The tension around Fina's eyes had softened and gone away by then, and she reached for the dagger and wrapped her hand around it. "Can we do that tomorrow night?" She asked him hesitantly, and Aika smiled and squeezed Fina hard enough to make the woman squeak.

"Of course we can." Vyse promised her, promised _them._

"And...you'll wear the hat again?" Fina went on, blushing brightly as she looked away from him. That made Aika cackle and flush a little herself, and Vyse would be lying if he said he wasn't affected by the memory of how the strength of Daccat's tricorn had made certain activities more...energetic.

Vyse cupped her chin and turned her head back to him, smiling "As you wish."

* * *

_265 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

"It's an imperfect solution, but it's what we can pull off quickly." Aika explained, finishing up the engineering report to the gathered command staff.

"Red moonstone powered space heaters with some minor modifications to the ship's boilers and potable water pump systems, and limiting water flow to select areas of the ship." Vyse summarized. "I get the space heaters and the boiler and pump modifications, but why are we cutting running water throughout the ship?" He wasn't particularly looking forward to losing his shower for the leg of the expedition when the secondary water supply systems would be shut down to prevent freezing and expansion damage further away from the heart of the vessel.

"It's a question of distance." Fina cut in smoothly, and she seemed as unenthused at the notion as Vyse felt. She did love her showers, after all. She loved baths more, but the opportunity for those were more infrequent on the _Delphinus._ "There are _lunaleagues_ of piping through this ship, and the lines that run from the boilers to the potable water supply will get very cold, even with the space heaters. In the Lands of Ice as you call them, the temperature will routinely hit well below freezing. Say, twice or three times the span between the temperature where water freezes and a comfortable chilly room temperature. The space heaters will do what they can in the private quarters and the public crew areas, but it will still be bitterly cold. The distance from the boilers to the kitchens and the crew recreational areas with the communal showers is significantly less than it will be to try and pipe water to every faucet and sink inside of the ship."

"We have to keep it to a short loop or the pipes will freeze." Aika said grimly. "Considering that we're just one ship and that if something happens, there's no hope of a rescue, we're playing it safe. The boilers will be working overtime just to maintain steam pressure to the reciprocating engines at the cold extremes. We can't stress them any further. So the crew's going to have to get used to the idea of huddling up in the shower rooms, and of sticking to the galley when we need a drink."

Vyse nodded. As always, Aika and her crack team of engineers had come up with the best possible solution they could in the time they had. "Any chance of a test run before we brave the frozen south?"

Aika nodded her head. "Aye. With your permission, captain, we were hoping to do some stress trials once we set out by taking the _Delphinus_ to the Upper Sky. We should get a feel for what to expect and how she'll handle at those altitudes. And how many extra layers we'll need to wear inside of the ship as well."

"It occurs to me that the Yafutomans probably have a few ideas in that regard." Vyse mused, rubbing at his chin. "Given how they're used to flying at those altitudes."

"You having another idea, Vyse?" Enrique wondered aloud, and there was a chuckle from Domingo and Polly, who represented navigation and crew management respectively. They were a crew, true enough, but in a briefing that must have felt incredibly casual to anyone with actual military training, there were glimpses of them being something more. A family.

"Just trying to catch two skyfish with one hook." Vyse said, glancing over to Osman who perked her head up at the casual drawl in his voice. "Osman. How are your supplies on trade goods?"

The rubenesque merchant's eyes must have been gleaming behind her dark glasses, because she broke out into a wide smile. "Give me a day to put together a full manifest. I haven't been able to work as fast, what with Laurette leaving to work as a royal advisor and all."

"The sacrifices we make for the happiness of our comrades, Osman." Vyse reminded her, and the Nasrian woman chuckled throatily. "Fina, do you think you…"

"I'll give her a hand, Vyse." His Silvite replied before he could finish. "I think we have a few extra odds and ends that they would find particularly useful."

"If they have any materials we could use to further insulate the ship's interior, I'm all for going a little out of our way." Aika agreed. "And you said it yourself - if anybody has a good idea on how to bundle up and survive cold temperatures, it would be the Yafutomans."

"Okay." Vyse tapped his hand down on the table. "Is there anything else that we need to discuss for the good of the ship, the crew, or our base?" Nobody spoke up, and he stood. "In that case, inform your stations and get ready for a journey to the Lands of Ice, after a stopover in Yafutoma. We depart Crescent Island in 24 hours."

* * *

_Yafutoma City, Yafutoma_

_271 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

The _Delphinus_ was beginning to feel like a ship of legend. No matter what they asked of it, no matter what sort of challenge it got faced with, the stolen prototype always pulled through. And to be fair, a lot of that had to do with the brilliance of its crew. They were a ragtag band of people from across the world brought together in common purpose for a host of different reasons. But Enrique always an ear to the ground for gossip, partly out of habit from his days maneuvering through Valua's royal court of backstabbing nobles and partly because he wanted to keep Aika and Fina updated with the latest betting odds on the 'Vyse dating pool.'

The Yafutomans who were with them had been ecstatic at the news of a return journey home, even if it was a layover, and they had been gathering stories to be told at home when they docked. The rest of the crew had been more than eager to supply them, but hyperbole struck hard. Among the crew, there was a rumor that the _Delphinus_ was some kind of an invincible ship, impervious to harm until it had fulfilled the great destiny given to it. The Yafutomans had taken it a step farther, claiming that with Princess Moegi sailing alongside the brave people who had saved her homeland, the _Delphinus_ had received the Blessings of Heaven. Fina had, true to form, gotten more than a little unsettled by the idea that somehow they were _divinely chosen,_ but she had rallied after Aika pointed out that they were talking about the ship and not the Silvite for once. Vyse was more than happy to just dismiss it, because while he didn't go tempting fate by ignoring certain traditions, he wasn't about to start thinking that he or his ship were somehow invincible. He knew better than most just how often the odds had been stacked against him and his dearest friends to give in to that level of hubris.

But when they saw the peak of Mount Kazai looming above the clouds before them on the 5th day of their voyage, Vyse couldn't stop the small shiver that he felt pass through him. They had flown due east from Crescent Island after ascending to the Upper Sky, expecting to reach Yafutoman airspace but not the heart of their lands. He had looked over to Domingo at the cartographer's table from his seat and been stunned at how the explorer's face had gone perfectly still and reverent.

Vyse didn't think that they were _divinely blessed_ by any means...but there were times he couldn't shake the feeling that maybe something was looking out for them.

It was only another two hours before they reached Yafutoma City, escorted there by Tenkou ships that flew the flag of the Yafutoman Navy. As the _Delphinus_ approached the great harbor of the jewel of the Empire beneath the Blue Moon, they could make out fireworks being launched in celebration and welcome, and what seemed to be the start of a very large gathering down at the entrance to the city.

When they pulled in and the crew threw down mooring lines to the waiting dockworkers below, a cheer rose up from the throng. Vyse and his embarkation team had already moved to one of the ship's transportation runabouts, but there was a last minute addition to himself, his ladies, and Enrique and Moegi. Fatima of Esperanza _had_ returned to Crescent Island at the break of day before they were to set sail, and she had brought an old Nasrian woman along with her. Now the two sat in the skiff, with the old woman shivering under a blanket to compensate for the colder climes that the ship had flown through, and she looked more nervous than Fatima did.

"It'll be all right, mama." Fatima reassured her, and Vyse looked on with a soft smile from the wheel as he guided them away from the _Delphinus_ and to the waiting shoreline. "She'll love you."

"She's never _met_ me, girl." The old woman who was Fatima's _mother_ complained. Fatima hugged her gently in response, but it was Fina who replied to her.

"That won't matter to Laurette." The Silvite said, garnering the attention of mother and daughter both. "She loved Fatima as a sister and a guardian, and there was room enough in her heart to care for people she had never met in a land that nobody had ever been to before." Fina smiled as she folded her hands together. "The only thing I suspect you'll have to worry about is deciding whether or not to return back to Maramba, or to stay here."

Fatima laughed weakly at that. "Why don't we try for a visit first, and go from there?"

"Just remember to let us do the talking first." Enrique advised the Blue Rogue and her mother. "There is a precedent for visiting that we should be following, and I don't want to mess it up."

"Moegi's had us practicing for hours." Vyse said with a wink to the women on the skiff, which earned some laughter. "But my mother did raise me to always be polite. To the folks that weren't total jackasses, anyways."

"Yes, yes. Don't worry, captain. We won't step on your toes." Fatima waved off his concern.

The crowd was so much thicker up close as they finally pulled in to a stop and Vyse locked the skiff into a hover next to the railing that jutted up around the double-wide pier's wooden planks. There was no mistaking the two people who stood front and center in the welcoming party, though. Prince Daigo looked hale and hearty and better than ever as he stood with his scarred shoulder and chest still uncovered, and at his side was Laurette in a beautiful blue and red silk kimono. The Prince was full of pride as he looked at them, and Laurette's eyes were misting up as she saw Fatima and put a hand over her mouth.

Vyse stepped off first alongside Enrique, and the women on board the skiff waited as they turned and bowed formally to Prince Daigo. In rehearsed, though still accented Yafutoman, they spoke at the same time. _"Greetings from the Lands of the West. May we rest here and be friends?"_

Daigo's smile broadened, and he took two massive steps forward to grab them both up and lift them clear off the pier with a boisterous laugh. "You may! You are _always_ welcome here, my Blue Rogue friends!" The rest of the party moved at Daigo's exuberant greeting, and cheers rose up from the Yafutomans as Enrique pulled himself free of Daigo to help Princess Moegi down from the runabout. Even as she smiled and inclined her head at the prince she was involved with, Moegi maintained her sense of dignity and decorum.

Laurette made up for it with an absolute lack of her own. The red-haired Foreign Minister of Yafutoma cried out Fatima's name and rushed to hug her big sister tightly, and the two women who had spent most of their lives stranded in Esperanza held each other for a long time, gently rocking back and forth.

"You came back." Laurette got out brokenly, and Fatima answered with a watery laugh.

"Like I could leave my little sister on her own without checking up on her? No, I just had some business to take care of." Everyone, even Vyse went quiet and watched as the two women separated. Fatima gave a warm smile as she helped her aged mother step down from the ship and come over.

Laurette's eyes were wide with wonder as Fatima nodded to her. "This is my mother, Aliya." The old woman just stared at Laurette with narrowed eyes for a few long moments before she scowled.

"Well, are you just going to stand there gawking at your dear adopted mother, girl, or are you going to come over and give me a hug?" Laurette let out another happy laugh at the request and did just that, and Aliya's scowl melted away.

"Will you stay?" Laurette asked them, still holding Aliya as she turned her head to Fatima. Fatima, in turn, looked to Vyse. So did Aika and Fina. So did Enrique and Moegi and Daigo. So did the _entire damn crowd of Yafutomans who loved Laurette like she was one of their own._

Vyse made a show of considering the question, no small feat when he'd already made up his mind about it, then leaned in towards Daigo. "Your highness? Would the Empire of Yafutoma mind terribly if we requested accommodations for the family of its Foreign Minister? Seeing as Fatima is a Blue Rogue and a friend and ally to your people also?"

Daigo caught on to the subtext and also acted out some overly serious thinking. "For how long, Captain Vyse?"

Vyse turned back to Laurette and Fatima and the old woman Aliya that they held between them, raising an eyebrow. They held Aliya tighter, and Laurette rested her free hand over her heart as she looked back at him.

"For the rest of their days." Vyse replied, and Laurette beamed wider while Fatima sighed and nodded. The Esperanzan had made that much clear when she'd arrived on Crescent Island with her mother in tow, clinging to her Blue Rogues Crew Coin. Her home was with her sister, and if Laurette was in Yafutoma, then to Yafutoma she had to go. Even if it meant braving the Dark Rift again.

Not that they would ever need to again, so long as they flew on the _Delphinus._

Prince Daigo stood straight and bowed to the old woman. "We welcome you to our lands, honored mother of Fatima and the Lady Laurette. You will want for nothing."

Aliya huffed and wiggled free of her daughters, coming up to Daigo and poking a bony finger into his chest. "What are your intentions toward my youngest girl?"

Daigo blinked, taken aback at the old cook's vehemence. "My _what?"_ He sputtered. Aliya looked into his eyes and hummed softly.

"Hmm. Once we get settled in, you're coming over for dinner. I'll cook for you, it'll give me a chance to get to know you better."

"I see." Daigo blinked and took a step back. Vyse found the entire scene rather amusing, but he held it to a smile that he didn't let break into a grin.

The crown prince of Yafutoma was a fearless warrior who had led a resistance movement against the corrupt ministers that had polluted his father's court. He hadn't balked at the terrible odds of the Valuan occupation forces when it came down to the wire. Yet now a lone old woman had him startled and on the defensive.

He recovered fast, at least. "Come. Send word to the rest of your crew that they are welcome to wander the city and spend coin and make trade. I think that we have much to talk about ourselves, captain."

"Oh, you'd be right about that." Vyse remarked.

* * *

Aika and Fina had gone off with Moegi and Laurette, eager to catch up and see to the business of trading supplies for the gear that they would need for their next voyage. Vyse had no doubt that the women would also be gossiping like there was no tomorrow, especially now that Fatima and her mother Aliya were among their number.

They had met briefly with Emperor Tokugawa, who was still old as ever, but looked far less worn than he had been when Vyse had first met him. Having the threat against his people and his throne neutralized, and his son back and his daughter _happy_ had done much to brighten the old Yafutoman's disposition. He'd thanked them all, gave an approving nod, and then told Daigo to let him know if they required anything further. And since Daigo was, by far, a more informal fellow since his exile, Daigo and Vyse and Enrique found themselves sitting out in the stone garden built around the guest house and drinking rice wine while Vyse and Enrique took turns catching the crown prince up to their latest exploits. Vyse had been surprised to hear that Prince Daigo knew of his unusual romantic arrangement with Aika and Fina, something that Laurette had told him in confidence and sworn him to secrecy over. Vyse hadn't been very surprised to hear that Yafutoman society frowned on such 'irregular' relationships. He _had_ been surprised to hear that Daigo wholeheartedly supported theirs.

Perhaps the prince had learned to value what truly mattered, and to leave certain traditions in the dust after all.

Daigo had one sandaled foot in the water with the fish swimming around his ankle like a carefree vagabond, yet the look on his face was anything but. "A fourth Moon Crystal. So quickly?"

"Fina's people sent her with a rough guide of where to find them, or at least where they were kept however many thousands of years ago." Vyse said. "Finding out that her former friend Ramirez was collaborating with the Valuans shook her hard, but it made clear that if we don't move first, and fast, that Ramirez will just tell them where to go and they'll beat us to it. Like they almost did here in Yafutoma." Vyse lifted up his ceramic bottle of _sake_ and took a sip, finding its nose-clearing quality best taken in small doses. "It was _his_ mission to find the Moon Crystals before he went missing and Fina's people sent her down."

"On reflection, it is likely that Ramirez knew the Silvites wouldn't accept his disappearance and the mission's failure - he knew that they would send someone else." Enrique pointed out, taking a slightly longer sip. The exiled prince nodded in satisfaction before looking back to them from the rock he was sitting on. "He knew _exactly_ where any Silvite they sent to complete his work would appear." Enrique made a face. "What I don't know is just how long they had patrols assigned to that particular span of sky where you first encountered her, Vyse. Had they been waiting for years, or…" His voice trailed off, and he bit his lip. Vyse frowned.

"What are you trying to say, Enrique?"

"Something that I heard in passing from my mother not long before your father and his crew, and Fina were dragged in caught my attention. How it was likely that sometime within the next six months, Galcian had promised to locate a new source of information on the power to control Arcadia. She specifically used the pronoun _her."_

Vyse breathed in sharply through his nose, thinking on that possibility for the moment. If Enrique was right, then did that mean that Ramirez had known they would send his beloved Fina next? And that Ramirez had even anticipated _when_ they would send her?

"It does not matter." Prince Daigo said sternly, cutting through his woolgathering as he reached a hand out and tapped the side of Vyse's boot to get his attention. "She is with you and Aika now, and she is both happy and free."

Vyse breathed out the tension and nodded. "Yes." He agreed, giving Daigo a nod and using the break to change the subject. "And right now, I'd bet anything that she and Aika and Laurette are working over the merchants for the best possible deals. But you've flown in the bitter cold of the Upper Sky, Daigo. What can we do to make this voyage easier?"

"I imagine that my sister has spoken about finding a good coat and gloves?" Daigo suggested, and Vyse and Enrique nodded. "Beyond that, your ideas about limiting the flow of water inside of the ship and using heaters are good ones. None of our ships use such piping as we have found in the Valuan ships that crashed or were captured, but our water freezes when we stay at too high an altitude. We stay inside, seal the windows tighter. Use cloth to stop drafts. And when we do go outside, to fish?" Daigo shrugged. "Exile Island is not so high as our ships can fly. We go higher only rarely. Your ship may do better. But it is also metal." The prince shrugged. "Metal stays cold longer than wood. Icy metal can burn as much as hot does."

"How do you seal the windows?" Vyse asked, curious. "Because the _Delphinus_ uses seals at the joining between reinforced glass and the ship's steel plating made out of Ixa'takan rubber tree sap, and we did notice some shrinking. Enough that we swore we felt a breeze on occasion. And the air got _thinner."_ Which was short of saying that some of the crew had begun to feel a little faint, even with the atmospheric condensers working close to the red line, as Aika had told them worriedly.

"You did. You are less used to the high skies than us, I think." Daigo nodded. He hummed for a bit, then smiled. "I think your Aika will find the solution on her own with my Laurette's help, it's common to our shipmakers' trade. But if you do not, then tell her to ask for _Gomuwaiya._ In your tongue - Rubber wire." He chuckled. "We have trees which makes such sap on the islands in the far east of our territory, in sight of the great stone reef. We brought them back and planted them here, and make sap like your ship uses. But we strengthen it. Shape it over a metal form so that it cannot shrink so badly."

Vyse blinked and groaned. "You realize that we're talking about hundreds and _hundreds_ of seals on our ship that we'd have to tear apart and replace? We'll never have it ready in time, that could take weeks! Months!"

Daigo shrugged. "Something for next time then."

Prince Enrique cleared his throat. "Begging your pardon, Daigo, but...did I hear you say _your_ Laurette earlier?" The prince of Yafutoma didn't jolt or flinch, but his eyes darted away as his cheeks pinked a little. Enrique laughed at catching him out. "Well. So she isn't just your Foreign Minister, then?"

"Laurette is beloved by my people." Daigo declared with a huff. "She is treated with great respect and honor. She has begun teaching our merchants what she knows of Ixa'taka's language as well."

Vyse hummed at that. "And she is a Blue Rogue, so I can be concerned for her welfare." Vyse turned himself around so he could face Daigo without turning his head. "What is she to you, Daigo? Is she a dalliance? Or do you want to make a life with her?"

"How is it among your people, Daigo?" Enrique went on, his face as serious as Vyse had ever seen it without going into full-on apoplectic fury. "She is not a noble by birth. If you were developing feelings for her, would your kingdom look down on her if you pursued her for the role of your wife and Lady Empress Apparent? Or would she be limited to the role of being nothing more than your _Mistress?"_

Daigo's spine straightened as he stared back at the two men, and none of them backed down from that standoff. Daigo set his bottle of _sake_ aside and settled his breathing.

"I do not know if she wishes to be my wife." Daigo conceded. "But I do know that my days are brighter with her close by. I know that my people love her. And I know that she is not like any woman I have ever known. I would never dishonor her by taking another as my wife, not if my heart is hers."

"Is it?" Vyse prodded.

Daigo huffed, and smiled faintly as some memory ran past him. "She kissed me first." He said, and blushed a little.

Vyse laughed. "Redheads. They go for what they want."

"Was it that way with you and Aika?" Daigo asked, picking his bottle back up.

"Yes." Vyse grinned. "It was." He raised up his own bottle, motioned for Enrique to do the same, and toasted Daigo with one of the Yafutoman words he had memorized. _"Cheers."_ They all took a hit, and Vyse breathed out fumes. "You have my blessing, Prince Daigo. If she will have you, then you may court her. Just remember. If you cause her harm, if you make her cry, I will have _words_ with you."

"My people would as well," Daigo said ruefully, "so the threat is empty." He looked to Enrique. "But while we are on the subject of giving permission for romances? Prince Enrique, what are your intentions towards my sister?"

Enrique huffed once. "I was wondering when you'd get around to that." He took a swig as Daigo set his now empty bottle aside and settled his hands over his legs.

"After your story of discovering the truth of _Daqat_ and his wives on their island, I was curious. But I do not like to interrupt a good story." Daigo explained. "Now, I demand an answer."

"I am not like Daccat. I do not need to _steal her_ away like a thief. She left Yafutoma with the blessings of her father, and yours as well." Enrique said firmly. "And I believe that just as you wish to choose who you will spend your life with, she deserves to have that choice also."

_"And?"_ Daigo said, a single word in Yafutoman full of meaning. Enrique squared off with him, then got down off of his rock and settled into a kneeling bow.

_"I am wishing to your sister court. Your blessing may I have?"_

Vyse frowned, because he'd heard Moegi practicing that sentence with Enrique, and something about it sounded off. To Daigo, the mistakes must have been much more readily apparent, because he chuckled a little before assuming his more serious expression.

"Will you treat her with respect, and honor her wishes?"

"Always."

"Will you see that she wants for nothing?"

"All that I have, little though it might be, will be hers."

"Will you make sure that her days are filled with smiles and laughter? That she will always feel loved?"

"Yes." Enrique said seriously.

Daigo reached over and clasped a hand to his shoulder. "Then you have my permission. Just do not get married without letting us know. Father has long wished to give her hand to someone worthy of it at the ceremony."

"Wonderful. Everyone's friends and you two are basically brothers-in-law now." Vyse said cheerfully, breaking up the far too serious moment. "Now can we finish drinking these and go do something suitably masculine, like fishing fish from actual _water?_ We only have a little bit of time, and I've talked enough about feelings for one day."

Daigo and Enrique smiled at each other before looking back to him. "Should we not talk about giving you our blessings to court the Ladies Aika and Fina?" Daigo asked innocently.

It made him laugh. "Please." Vyse threw back the last of his rice wine in a long swallow that had him wheezing afterwards, and then he shook his head. "They're Blue Rogues. I'd like to see you try to tell them that they can't love who they want."

* * *

_Southern Yafutoman Airspace_

_277 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Midday_

When they departed Yafutoma City with a full crowd of the city's well-wishers and an honor guard escort of Tenkou/Yafutoman Naval ships flying beside them, the _Delphinus_ had left behind two passengers as Vyse had anticipated. For the foreseeable future, Fatima and her mother Aliya would be staying in residence with the Nasrian cook's adopted sister Laurette. Given the sheer _gaggle_ of people who had been fawning over Aliya in the wake of the passing gossip over her relationship to the city's favorite foreigner, Vyse had no worries about his errant crewmembers or their relatives.

Not to mention they had Daigo there. Despite the Yafutoman's desire for tranquility and unchanging peace, there was no way that they wouldn't be headed for, as the saying went, _interesting times._

The crew presence on the bridge was more muted now that a formal two-and-a-half shift system was possible with the number of personnel on hand. Don was at the helm, Domingo was at the map table and muttering to himself as he took additional measurements and tried to update their maps, and Pinta was their cabin boy and ship's runner while Marco was off getting something to eat and see to Pow's care and feeding before he had a turn down in the gunnery station. Everyone had a place to be, and they'd slipped into their roles easily in the days following their departure from Yafutoma. The newly acquired coats, hats, and mittens were close at hand, with enough for every member of the crew to be clothed comfortably. True to form, the Yafutoman merchants had insisted that Vyse's be a coat of multi-hued blue with golden dragons stitched into the cloth, something that Moegi had told him faintly was usually only worn by Yafutomans of higher rank and status. Vyse had remembered how Kalifa had been within earshot when the princess had said that, and how the woman had smirked at him when he caught her watching him. _Lord of Rogues,_ she still called him from time to time, and it had made him shiver then.

It still did, although now he could blame it on the cold as they sailed through the Upper Sky. Without requiring any detours, their flight had proceeded straight south and had allowed them to cover a great deal of lunaleagues in a hurry. Vyse could make out the sky rift that separated the airspace around the Dark Rift's exit and the memorial for the Esperanzan expedition from Yafutoma's borders. They would cross over it in about a quarter of an hour, and then they would keep heading south. They would keep flying past the ominous black clouds that spread out like tendrils from the Dark Rift. From their height, from any of the starboard facing windows or the enclosed dome over the lookout's tower where Tikatika preferred to perch, that miasma that seemed to stretch on endlessly was clearly visible. Vyse could only stare at it for so long before he turned his gaze southwards again. Towards a landscape that no modern sailor had ever properly set foot in.

While he was up at the front of the bridge, standing a respectful distance away from the helm, he heard the delicate footsteps of Fina coming up behind him. She took position off of his left shoulder, a thermos of coffee in her hand if the smell was a giveaway, and didn't say anything as she watched the horizon beside him. She just sipped at her coffee and waited, until Vyse finally sighed.

"You're going to be up all night if you keep drinking that."

"I'll stop by the second bell." She told him. "You should've seen me back in the Silver Shrine."

Vyse hummed. "Did you bleed coffee or something?"

She laughed softly. "Quite nearly. I didn't start until after Ramirez left, and the taste took some getting used to, but the _smell_ was always wonderful to me. I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much studying done without it." She took in another long inhale of the vapor coming off of her thermos and sighed in appreciation. "It's so much better when it isn't freeze-dried."

"Freeze _what?"_ Vyse questioned, and Fina blinked with that widening of her eyes that always indicated a disconnect between the life she had lived before them, and after. Then it passed and she shook her head.

"A kind of food preservation. It isn't important." She said ruefully. "I could just as easily have said that it's better _freshly ground."_

"There are days I wonder just how your people live, that there could be such differences between us." Vyse mused. He looked to her and turned his head minutely, not needing to, but wanting her to know that she had his full attention.

That was important, something his own mother had taught him not long after he got the scar on his face. _Vyse, you look at a girl when you're talking to her. Especially if it's important. How else is she supposed to know that she matters to you?_

Fina looked back at him with less of a head turn, and there was something serious there that gave him pause. "I'd like to show you. I don't know how we can reach my people now, with my ship lost to the abyss, but...If I can still go back? I want to show you and Aika how we live. How I lived."

"We'll get you home, Fina." Vyse promised her, and was ready to say more when she shook her head sharply.

"The Silver Shrine isn't my home anymore." She told him firmly, her blue eyes shining out from under her yellow bangs. Vyse thought about that for a moment, not wanting to ask a question if he could provide his own answer to it. She must have seen him struggling with it, because she finally pressed a hand to his chest and sighed.

_Oh._

"I'm…" Vyse stammered out, reaching to her hand and resting his fingers on hers. She just smiled at him and nodded. Well. When words failed. He leaned down and kissed her gently, not for very long. Not one of the deep, wet kisses she loved when they were alone or with Aika, but enough to get the point across. She pulled back with a sigh and her cheeks pinked a shade.

"I was going to tell you that we've gotten all the heaters up and running." Fina said, once she had reclaimed her hand and taken another sip of coffee to compose herself. Vyse would have said that she was settling her nerves, but given what Fina had told him about the compound in the drink called _caffeine,_ it didn't seem possible. "We're doing what we can to seal the drafts with caulk and fabric, which is a short-term fix, but Aika said that the compressors were having an easier time maintaining air quality inside the ship. Especially since the Yafutoman merchants pointed out that trick of theirs for using green moonstones to supercharge the air purity filters."

"Every little bit helps." Vyse agreed. "The bridge crew's ready for what's coming. Does everyone else have their cold weather gear on hand?"

Fina nodded. "Vyse. We're _ready_ for this."

Vyse breathed slowly, trying to remember to project confidence. "I know. We're more ready now after our Yafutoman detour than we would have been without it, but I'm the captain. The lives of everyone here are on my shoulders, it's my job to worry."

Fina laughed at that, and Cupil detached from her wrist to manifest as a puffball that made a soft whooping noise of comfort and squished against his stomach.

"Then I suppose it's our job to get you to relax." The Silvite said slyly. "Dinner in your quarters tonight?" And by the way she said _our,_ Vyse knew that Aika planned on being there as well. She'd taken the day shift for a reason, after all.

"Sounds wonderful." Vyse smiled, and Fina leaned up and gave him a peck on the corner of his mouth with another of her coffee-flavored kisses. She stepped away from the forward windows of the bridge and gave him a wink as she sashayed for the exit hatch, with Cupil pulling away and drifting after her.

Vyse caught the few members of the crew currently stationed on the bridge watching him and Fina with varying degrees of interested subterfuge.

...Right. They were still betting on which of his girls Vyse was _actually_ with. He sighed. "As you were." He ordered, and they turned away with a snicker.

* * *

_The Lands of Ice_

_279 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

_Mid-Morning_

For once, Aika's wild predictions which she based on 'stories she heard in port' weren't actually that far off the mark. Fina had certainly warned them all against doing anything as senselessly stupid as going outside on the foredeck, or touching freezing cold metal with their tongues. She spoke of frostbite with harsh warnings that Ilchymis took very seriously, and which the Yafutomans did also. It was unheard of to their Nasrian compatriots and those along the temperate band of skies around Ixa'taka and Mid-Ocean, but if a person wasn't careful to protect their extremities in extreme cold, they could lose fingers. And toes. And since everyone was very attached to their digits, everyone on the crew learned to work their duties a little more carefully. Those who had access to fire magic found themselves tending the space heaters or channeling low-grade Pyri spells into the limited freshwater that ran to the shower rooms and to the kitchen. Tikatika kept a space heater going full blast in the moonsteel-reinforced glass dome of his lookout's tower and was bundled up more thickly than Vyse had thought a person could be and yet still move. And in a rare showing of solidarity to the rest of the crew, even Khazim had finally put on a shirt and sweater. And mittens. And a knit wool hat with a poofy red ball at the top. He kept refusing the coat, but Vyse knew how to pick his battles, and the gunnery girls on loan from Clara certainly weren't complaining about the eye candy.

Vyse stood up in Tikatika's lookout tower, doing his best to stay to shallow breathing while he and Enrique used the domed space to get a more thorough view of the landscape. The Lands of Ice were just as Fina had described them; an endless wasteland of jagged rocks crusted with clouded ice and howling winds thick with snow.

"The sun's up, according to our clocks." Enrique mused. "But it's still so _dark_ here."

"Yeah." Vyse agreed, watching his breath fog into the air. The space heater was fighting a losing battle, but it kept the enclosed space from dropping to horrendously frigid temperatures and kept it at an uncomfortable one. There was nothing to be done about the howling winds, though, and Tikatika had taken to spreading a paste of mashed tubers over the worst of the drafts opened up by the contracting steel on the glass paneling. It had frozen quickly and made for an effective sealant, but would require significant cleaning later when they left. Not that Tikatika minded that extra bit of work later for the added comfort now, even if he was down in the galley having breakfast while Vyse was up here supervising his post.

_"Part of it is our position on Arcadia, and part of it's the cloud front."_ Fina explained, calling through the intercom system from the bridge. She and Aika were on call at the helm while Vyse and Enrique were away, and the Silvite's calm air of reasoning kept everyone from becoming too jittery. _"The tilt of the planet's axis means that sunlight doesn't strike the south pole very often, save for certain times of the year when it receives constant exposure. The extreme conditions here drive the weather patterns."_

Vyse hummed as he swept his gaze over the horizon again. Truthfully, he could see how, under better conditions and if it weren't so _bitterly cold_ that a person could find beauty here. From the prismatic ribbon of glowing lights that lingered in the night sky to the five additional discoveries that they had made flying in thanks to Tikatika's sharp eyes and Vyse's own talent for picking up irregularities, it was clear that even in the frozen wasteland there were signs of life and civilization.

As if anyone would build a tomb on top of a mountain. Or place an enormous magnifying lens made of polished ice on top of another pointed towards the center of the continent. Fina had grown excited when they'd found that convex lens, and had used its aim to guide them to their destination.

A destination that was as flat and featureless as everything else was.

"Fina." Vyse said, keeping the intercom to the bridge open. "I know you said that there was an entrance to the lost capital of the Purple Civilization here, but I'm not seeing it."

Fina sighed in response. _"I was afraid of that."_ She said forlornly. _"Glacia used to have an entrance on the surface for visitors according to the accounts I read, but they had trouble keeping it from being iced over. Before the wars and the Rains of Destruction happened, there were scattered rumors of the Purple Civilization building something to melt through the ice. I suppose it didn't work for them."_

"And you were counting on that being our way in?" Vyse asked, staring down off the port side of the ship to the ice below. If he squinted, he could just make out the hint of something beneath the clear frozen water. A building, perhaps?

_"It was the entrance I knew of."_ The Silvite said apologetically. _"Do you think we could still access it? Maybe we could try attacking it? A cannon barrage might break the ice so we could get through."_

"Doubtful." Vyse said, trying to build a rough estimate of the thickness of the ice beneath them. "That ice has been building up since the Rains of Destruction fell, correct? If so, I don't think that anything in our arsenal could smash through that barrier."

"What about the Moonstone Cannon?" Enrique questioned carefully. "It took three hits to stop Bluheim. A single blast might burn through the ice."

_"And it could just as easily bore a hole clean through the ice and the structures beneath and destroy everything we're hoping to access."_ Fina pointed out grimly. _"I haven't figured out how to 'wean' the power output on the Moonstone Cannon yet. It's an all or nothing and I don't want to risk it. Especially not in this weather. Opening up the nose would mean exposing the entire forward hold to these temperatures, and I have no idea what that kind of cold will do to the Moonstone Cannon's more delicate workings. To say nothing of everything else in the bow."_

"Fair enough." Enrique conceded, looking down at the surface of the frozen continent with grim eyes. "What about a more blunt force option? If we cannot dislodge the ice by concussive force, or bore through it with the main cannon safely, could we not try ramming through the ice? We've reinforced the hull twice over, once during the main refit and again after we returned from Yafutoma alongside the engine upgrades. If we have the ability to plow through stone reefs with impunity, we should be able to break through that ice by ramming it with the nose of the _Delphinus."_

Vyse blinked at the idea, not saying anything. Fina didn't offer up a comment of her own from the bridge either, but Aika did so. She snorted in outright derision.

_"Enrique, I know that you never had to study mechanical engineering, so I'm not going to yell at you for suggesting that."_ She started out, and took a deep breath. _"First off, what we've got below us there is vastly different than the stone reefs around Maramba or the more menacing reef between Yafutoma and Ixa'taka. Those stone reefs are made up of rocks that range between pebbles, skiff-sized rocks, and boulders the side of mountains. We never aim straight for the big ones, we go around them and go through the littler pieces. The hull can take the abuse of smaller impacts because the force is blunted when they get pushed out of the way. But that ice beneath us is one solid sheet. There's no give to it."_

"Recommendations, Chief Engineer?" Vyse asked, slipping into the professional role of a ship's captain asking its main mechanic for their professional opinion.

_"The _Delphinus _**might**__ be able to crack through that ice and get us to the visitor's entrance that Fina mentioned. We are flying in one hellishly well-built ship. But, there's also the risk that if we hit that ice, at the speed we'd need to break through it, that we might end up crumpling the nose. And if we do that, you can forget about ever opening the forward drop hatch again, or firing the main cannon. You'll probably knock out the torpedo bay in the process. Or, we might get really unlucky and we'll end up breaking the spine of the ship and fracturing the keel. In which case, we're stranded down here at the bottom of the world with no hope of rescue, and we die a slow death of exposure and starvation."_ She paused long enough to take another breath. _"Not really great outcomes, and I'm not keen on risking it all on a longshot. Those are my thoughts, Vyse._ Find us a better option."

Vyse looked out over the frozen continent which boasted few signs of life. If there were people who had once lived here, he was hard pressed to believe that they would put themselves in the path of these endless blizzards and the freezing winds any longer than they absolutely had to. No, it was more likely that they…

He stopped and blinked wildly as he considered the visitor's entrance to the Purple Civilization's capital, the forgotten city of Glacia. An entrance buried under packed snow and ice. A city which lay _beneath it._ His mind spun for a bit as he stepped away from Enrique and lifted a gloved hand up to touch the dome. Even covered up, he could feel the cold leeching the heat from his body through the thick and insulated material.

"Fina." He said. "Did the people of the Purple Civilization live _inside_ of the frozen continent? Is that why the visitor's center was on the surface?"

_"No, they…"_ Fina started to answer him, but she inhaled sharply enough to be heard over the intercom. _"Oh. Of course. Why didn't I…"_

"You were acting on the information that had been supplied to you, Fina, it's perfectly fine. But am I right?"

_"If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, Vyse? Then yes. We haven't tested the ship at that altitude, though."_

"I'll take those odds over possibly wrecking my ship." Vyse said, smiling smugly as he reached for the intercom. "Aika, we're coming down to the bridge. You want to let your boys know to prepare?"

_"Forget that." _The redhead said. _"I'd better get down there and make sure that we don't miss a step."_ The intercom turned off, and Vyse reached for the hatch that led to the interior of the ship, making sure that the space heater of the domed lookout tower was still running on high. It was, and it was stable.

Enrique called his name three times as they went down the ladder and Vyse strolled through the corridors of the ship. He only turned to look at the exiled prince after the third attempt, mostly because of how exasperated the man sounded.

"What are we doing, Vyse?" Enrique asked him. "What did you figure out that I'm not seeing?"

"Do you remember what you said when we squared off against Admiral Gregorio's blockade just outside of Esperanza?" Vyse threw back at him.

Enrique made a face and squinted, thinking back to that particular day. He'd said a lot of things, Vyse knew, but he was hoping that Enrique would pick the right one.

"Can't go under it, can't go over it, can't go around it...got to go through it?" Enrique guessed hesitantly. Vyse's smiled broadened.

"That worked for the blockade, but it won't work here. We've gone over it, we can't go around it, and we can't go through it, but…" Vyse let his voice trail off and waited.

He could see the spark of realization in Enrique's eyes the moment that his friend figured it out. "Oh! We're going _under_ it?"

"Under the entire continent." Vyse confirmed, and kept walking. "The weather patterns of the Upper Sky are different than our regular altitudes. The Sky Rifts don't reach up there. It stands to reason that if we drop down to the Lower Sky, we might find that the temperature and the winds are a little bit calmer. It was certainly warmer beneath Yafutoma than it was above it. Anyone who lived here would have learned how to survive the cold. Learned how to live with it. If we fly under the continent, we might just find that the people of Glacia kept a way to get to the city from underneath."

"Unbelievable." Enrique shook his head. "A brain as marvelous as yours, if you had been Valuan they would have made you a vice admiral by now."

Vyse laughed at that. "No thanks. I'd rather be a captain in the Blue Rogues."

"You keep this up, they might make you the first Admiral of the Blue Rogues." Enrique teased him.

"Don't you dare go around saying that." Vyse scowled. "The crew have enough bets on me already."

"You worry about keeping us alive and pulling out these insightful leaps of logic of yours." Enrique countered, just before they reached the hatch to the bridge. "You leave the crew's betting pools to me."

* * *

_Beneath the Lands of Ice, Lower Sky_

_280 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape_

He had been right. Once they flew back towards the edge of the frozen continent and were back into open skies, they activated the condensers and started their drop down beneath the thin layer of frosted clouds that lingered at its base. On their way, Tikatika reported seeing a strange, hairy creature with enormous tusks stuck frozen at the edge of the ice shelf.

Underneath those clouds, the fearfully bitter winds that had been their constant companion stopped, as though those clouds acted like a buffer. In the Lower Sky, the air wasn't quite so dry, quite so cold. It was still freezing, but there was a warmth from the abyss that rose up and made the moisture fog up their windows until the heaters caught up and cleared them. Vyse helped it along by charging up a Pyri spell on the bridge and letting it burn out slowly instead of detonating all at once.

They sailed beneath the ice and dealt with the unusual and unnerving sensation of having a landmass _above_ them, rather than below, with nothing but dark skies far beneath the keel. Their first trial run of the ship in the Lower Sky proved to be a success to everyone's relief.

Using Domingo's unerring calculations made in spite of the irregularities in the ship's compass, they sailed for the southmost point on the globe of Arcadia, and a day later, flying at slower speeds as they dodged icy outcroppings and dangling bits of rocky permafrost, Vyse's insight was rewarded.

Hanging beneath the ice at the bottom of the world, directly beneath where the purple moon had hung in the sky, were countless buildings and inverted towers _hanging from the continent._

They had found Glacia, and no structure was more commanding than an enormous inverted dome at the center of the forgotten city, complete with a massive hole on one side of it.

"Should we go through the hole, captain?" Don asked nervously from the helm. Vyse shook his head.

"No." There was no telling what they'd stumble onto if they did that. Their luck in dealing with Gigas made Vyse cautious. He'd play it safe for now, and save risking the long odds for when it mattered. Vyse only had so much luck to rely on, he thought with a small grin. It would be a shame to waste it here. "Take us to the edge of the city and hold position below it. The expedition team and I will fly up on a runabout and take a closer look."

Vyse tried not to think about how his breath fogged up in front of his face when he spoke.

He imagined it would be a lot worse, once they were exploring Glacia.


End file.
